China is a noisy place. I learned that very soon after I got here. It’s something you just have to get used to. But sometimes the noise just drives me crazy. Like the other day when they opened up a new store somewhere across the street (at least I assume that this is what was going on, because they love to turn up the volume especially on such occasions). In any case, the noise (for it was more than music) that came into my home from the outside was louder than the volume of the music I listen to at home. As a matter of fact, I tried to turn on some of my own music just to drown out that nerve wrecking whoomm whoomm from the outside, but it was a hopeless case. I could hardly hear my own music, and I had the volume already up more than usual! Worst of all, the music outside was so loud that it constantly had the alarms of the cars that were parked around go off. Talking about driving me crazy.

As a matter of fact, it was so loud that I decided to record a little sampling just to give you an idea. Now, all you need to do is hook up your computer to a pretty good sound system, turn the volume all the way up, and then you still might not get close to what I had to listen to for hours the other day, sitting at my desk, wanting just a little peace and quiet!