The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou will remove about 40 percent of its vehicles from the roads to improve air quality and ease traffic congestion during the upcoming Asian Games and Asian Para Games.

Lin Daoping, deputy secretary general of Guangzhou municipal government, told a press briefing Friday that the even-odd license plate method, an experiment tried during the Beijing Olympic Games, will be introduced between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Nov. 1 to 29 and Dec. 5 to 21.

The restriction will apply to all roads in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, during the Asian Games and some roads during the Asian Para Games.

However, the restriction does not apply to public transport and support vehicles for the Games.

Police estimate that the license plate restriction would force about 40 percent of all vehicles off the roads.

Further, Guangzhou, which has about 2.1 million vehicles, will add 1,000 more buses and offer free public transport to limit the impact on the daily life of residents, Lin said.