BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- When 72-year-old Shi Jikun opened his windows at home in Yuxi, southwest China's Yunnan Province, he used to hear the repeated thud of balls and blowing of whistles from an indoor sports venue near his residential community.
"During the day, I didn't dare open the windows," Shi said, recalling years when the noise disrupted his daily routine.
The sports venue has since undergone two rounds of soundproofing. Sound-absorbing materials were installed on its walls, while double-glazed soundproof windows were fitted along the side facing the residential area.
The noise has eased. "The neighborhood is quiet now, making everyday life much more comfortable," Shi noted.
Shi's experience is part of a broader move underway across China to tackle one of the less obvious costs of urbanization: the growing amount of noise packed into increasingly dense neighborhoods.
As cities expand, the likes of homes, roads, businesses, construction sites and recreational spaces are often crammed together. China has, notably, been testing a neighborhood-level response to this challenge via the development of "quiet communities," combining physical upgrades with local management and mediation.
This initiative was launched as a national pilot project in May 2023. By the end of 2025, a total of 3,272 quiet communities had been built nationwide, benefiting more than 2.4 million households, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
This approach now also has a stronger legal footing. On Saturday, China's Ecological and Environmental Code came into force, with a dedicated section on noise pollution prevention and control.
The scale of the problem is reflected in noise complaints. In 2025, cities at the prefecture level and above received about 6.83 million noise-related complaints, with social-life noise accounting for 73.2 percent.
Noise from neighbors, equipment malfunctions and disturbances from square dancing, a popular group exercise in China often held by middle-aged and older residents in public spaces, were among the most common issues raised.
China's quiet-community program is designed to address such problems before they become recurring disputes. "Quiet communities do not mean that there should be no sound," said Lu Lu, deputy head of the noise management division at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The goal, Lu said, is to create a comfortable and harmonious living environment while balancing everyday activity with residents' need for quiet.
The solutions vary from place to place. In south China's Shenzhen, some newly built residential communities are incorporating noise control at the planning and design stage. Measures include low-noise pavements, vegetation buffers, separated pedestrian and vehicle routes, and automatic noise-monitoring equipment.
Older communities are using renovation projects to address noise concerns. In Xiaoshan District in east China's Hangzhou, Huiyu garden community replaced aging elevators and repaired drainage grates and other public facilities as part of its quiet-community program.
But physical upgrades alone cannot settle conflicts between neighbors.
At Fenglin Shunhe community in Weihai, eastern China's Shandong Province, residents, property managers, community officials and square-dancing groups agreed to end dancing at 8:30 p.m. The main lights in the square switch off at that time, signaling that it is time for the dancers to leave.
The key is to respond quickly to complaints and give residents and activity groups a way to negotiate solutions, said Jiang Chunyan, head of the neighborhood committee.
In another community in Shenzhen, property managers have gone further by treating renovation noise as a process to be managed proactively rather than a problem to be addressed after complaints arise.
Renovation work is divided into nine stages and mapped on a visual noise-management chart. Property managers use the chart to carry out targeted inspections as work progresses. Contractors are also required to work only during designated hours and under fully enclosed conditions.
The program still faces gaps in terms of regional coverage and long-term maintenance. Quiet communities remain concentrated in a few cities, while older neighborhoods and parts of central and western China have fewer projects. Some communities also face difficulties maintaining noise-control measures after initial upgrades are completed.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment plans to incorporate quiet-community development into China's noise pollution prevention and control work for the 2026-2030 period. It has called for regular inspections, dynamic monitoring and follow-up visits to ensure that measures remain effective.
Zheng Shanshan, an official responsible for ecological affairs in Hangzhou's Xiangfu Subdistrict, said the next step should extend noise management from individual communities to larger areas through tools such as sound-environment maps.
"Quiet communities are only a starting point," Zheng said. "We hope to create more quiet spaces across the city." ■
