Hmm...I don't find China noisy at all. Sure, there are many impatient drivers who constantly blast their horns, but the lack of motorcycles, mopeds and inconsiderate idiots that blast their stereos at 5am is a sure sign China is a lot quieter than neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, where people are seemingly oblivious to all that noise.
Unless you are used to living in North Dakota or something, Kunming and China in general are quiet enough; it's rarely noisy in a housing estate where most people live.
Try Vietnam for a while...it's absolutely horrible. The people get up at 5am (to do what?!), they blast their stereos with good morning Vietnam banter, some horrible music, whizz past on their scooters and mopeds all day long (hardly any Vietnamese own cars), the trucks in Vietnam have the craziest horns in the world and the whole place stays noisy until about 9 or 10pm at night. It doesn't necessarily become quiet at night either, just quieter. China is much more civilized by comparison.
Air pollution? Well, Kunming's air quality seems OK to me; I don't think the air quality in Ho Chi Minh City with it's 11 million mopeds could be any better than that of Kunming. Just some food for thought.
A isn't noisy because B is noisier. Hmm....
"Hmm...I don't find China noisy at all." All I can say is ...WHAT THE HELL! I wear ear plugs all day long here except when I have to work. Lets not carry these responses into the realm of the absurd.
"I wear ear plugs all day long here except when I have to work." All I can say is ...WHAT THE HELL! We're all different. people in glass houses... throwing stones etc.
my advice "start drinking heavily" who needs ear plugs they give you brain cancer.
I should have caps locked that so you can hear it, sorry my bad.
All I know is China isn't much noisier than living in a big Australian city. For starters, few Chinese people have house parties and cause havoc on Friday and Saturday nights in your own neighborhood compared to Australia or the USA. This has been my experience and I have lived in 2 different places in Kunming for about 1 and a half years and I have able to sleep in peace every night. When I was living in west Texas a couple of years ago, I seem to recall an awful habit of disrepectful locals having extremely loud parties well into the night and most other residents not being "game enough" to tell them to shut the hell up. It was impossible to sleep and I was beginning to question why I didn't tell those idiots to shut the hell up. A nice middle-aged lady did finally do so, but it wasn't a long term solution.
In short, I'll take living in China anyday over living in that city over in Texas.
