Nation's 'quiet communities' hush sounds of the city

China has established 3,272 "quiet communities" nationwide, benefiting more than 2.4 million households as part of a national pilot project to curb urban noise pollution, according to data released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The initiative gained stronger legal reinforcement on Saturday with the implementation of China's new Ecological and Environmental Code, which contains a dedicated section on noise pollution prevention and control. The legal measure addresses a growing urban challenge. In 2025 alone, Chinese prefecture-level cities received approximately 6.83 million noise complaints, with social-life noise, such as square dancing, equipment malfunctions and neighbor disputes, accounting for 73.2 percent of all reports.

Launched in May 2023, the quiet-community program balances local daily activities with residents' health by combining structural engineering, technological monitoring and local dispute mediation.

"Quiet communities do not mean that there should be no sound," said Lu Lu, deputy head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's noise management division. The goal, Lu said, is to establish comfortable living environments while accommodating normal urban life.

Solutions vary by location. In Shenzhen, some new residential communities are incorporating noise control into planning and design, including low-noise pavements, vegetation buffers, separated pedestrian and vehicle routes, and automatic noise-monitoring equipment.

Older communities are also being upgraded. In Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district, the Huiyu Garden community replaced aging elevators, and repaired drainage grates and other public facilities as part of its quiet-community program.

Physical upgrades, however, cannot resolve every dispute. In Weihai, Shandong province, property managers and residents negotiated a mandatory 8:30 pm curfew for square-dancing groups, enforced by automatically shutting off public plaza lighting.

Despite progress, officials acknowledge ongoing challenges, including uneven regional implementation and long-term facility maintenance. To address these gaps, the ministry announced plans to integrate quiet-community criteria directly into its national noise pollution prevention guidelines for 2026-30, backed by routine inspections and monitoring.

Local officials view the residential program as a preliminary step toward broader urban quiet zones, aiming to expand noise-control measures across commercial and public spaces nationwide.

Shi Jikun, a 72-year-old resident in Yuxi, Yunnan province, used to be menaced by noise from a nearby indoor sports venue.

The venue has since undergone two rounds of soundproofing, reducing noise for neighbors like Shi.

"The neighborhood is quiet now, making everyday life much more comfortable," he said.

XINHUA