China builds 3,272 quiet residential communities in push against noise pollution

　　BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China has built 3,272 quiet residential communities that serve more than 2.4 million households as part of a nationwide effort to cut noise pollution, according to a government report.

　　The annual report on prevention and control of noise pollution in China, issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) together with 10 other government bodies, said urban noise was largely under control in 2025, with 93.3 percent of monitored zones meeting national standards during the day and 87.8 percent at night.

　　A quiet residential community is defined as a neighborhood that has brought noise pollution under control, meets national sound-environment quality standards and achieves high resident satisfaction, providing occupants with a calm atmosphere for daily life, study and work.

　　In 2024, the MEE circulated draft guidelines on building such communities, with the goal of making this designation the norm for all residential communities by 2035.

　　To qualify, a community must meet five basic criteria under the draft guidelines. These include an absence of persistent, repeated noise complaints from multiple households about the same source; compliance with noise limits set for its designated sound-environment functional zone; and the establishment of a formal mechanism to mediate noise disputes.

　　Beyond residential areas, the Chinese government's push for a quieter environment has expanded heavily into industrial and infrastructure sectors.

　　Regulators have tightened noise supervision across several sectors, the report said. To achieve full coverage of industrial noise management, some 290,000 industrial firms have had noise pollution integrated into their pollutant-discharge permits. Meanwhile, roughly 1.2 million enterprises have been included in pollutant-discharge registration. Authorities have deployed automatic monitoring and other smart regulatory tools at construction sites and issued about 121,000 nighttime work permits over the year.

　　China has also laid more than 23 million square meters of low-noise road surface, built about 1.27 million meters of sound barriers and installed automatic monitors at 34 airports. More than 8,000 trains offered quiet carriages during the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush.

　　MEE spokesperson Pei Xiaofei noted on Friday that noise complaints reached about 6.83 million in 2025, up 938,000 from a year earlier, an increase Pei attributed to the public's growing expectations for quieter surroundings.

　　Pei said China would draw up a new noise-control action plan covering the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). ■