The rhythm of "thump thump thump" started up, and the square dancing began again.
On the evening of August 27, at around 6:00 p.m., Li Yita and her family, who live in Fuzhou, were disturbed by the noise coming from outside their window. She walked to the central square of their residential community, about 50 meters away from her home, where she saw more than 60 elderly men and women in their 60s, lined up in formation, surrounding a black loudspeaker the size of a suitcase, dancing to the music.
The noise detection meter screen nearby displayed 68.8 decibels, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and multiple studies, long-term exposure to a noise environment of 60-70 decibels may have adverse effects on sleep, hearing, and cardiovascular health.
This instrument was obtained after Li Yitao filed complaints with multiple departments, including the local public security bureau and the ecological environment bureau, for three consecutive years, and made hundreds of phone calls.
After the installation of the noise detection equipment, the neighborhood returned to a state of quiet for a time. However, this lasted only about 5 months, until April 2026, when the square dance troupe returned with their loudspeakers, causing the noise levels to soar above 60 decibels every night.
Although Article 88 of the People's Republic of China's Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which took effect on January 1, 2026, clearly states that those who produce noise that disrupts social life and, after being persuaded, fail to stop and continue to interfere with others' normal lives, can be detained or fined, Li Yita never saw any administrative punishment imposed on the noise makers.
During her efforts to push the case forward and repeatedly inquire about its progress with the police, the investigation was terminated due to a third-party institution detecting a decibel level of 58.1 at Li Yishuo's home. She subsequently filed an administrative lawsuit against the police station, which was rejected by the court.
People who have had similar experiences to Li Yita are not uncommon. "Complaints with no solution" have turned noise rights protection into a prolonged tug-of-war, even triggering intense conflicts. In 2025, a square dance enthusiast in Xuyi, Jiangsu, was slapped in the face and suffered a concussion and facial lacerations by the person in charge of a nearby milk tea shop due to the loud music, and the person in charge of the milk tea shop was given administrative penalties. In May 2026, an elderly person in Xi'an, Shaanxi, was involved in a mutual verbal abuse with a neighbor in a property owners' group due to noise issues, and later the elderly person injured the neighbor with a cleaver and was held criminally liable.
Various types of noise are troubling many people, with China's noise complaint volume rising year by year. According to the "China Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Report" released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in conjunction with other departments, the national total noise complaint volume has increased for four consecutive years, with a growth rate of approximately 51.7%. In 2025, the complaint volume was approximately 6.833 million, with social life noise complaints accounting for 70% of the total, exceeding 5 million.
Noise permeates everyday life, from the sound of children running and jumping upstairs, to the low-frequency hum of air conditioning units and other equipment, to the noise from public spaces like square dancing and outdoor KTV. Despite existing laws, complaints often go unaddressed, leaving those troubled by the noise to find their own ways to cope and fight for some peace.
Negotiations Fail, Users Say 'I Exercise Normally', 'I Do What I Want at Home'
Li Yita's rights defense journey began three years ago.
At 6:30 in the evening, "Heart Beats, Emotions Blaze" accompanied by a strong rhythm came from the central square of the residential area, her heart beat rapidly with the music, starting to feel suffocated, her daughter closed the door and window of her bedroom, unable to focus on her homework.
She followed the sound downstairs and found the leader of the dance in the center square of the community, hoping she could turn down the volume of the speaker.
"Hello! You're being too loud, can you please keep it down?" Li Yitao had to raise her voice several times in an attempt to drown out the music, and it wasn't until she spoke loudly that the woman, who appeared to be in her 40s, turned down the volume and turned around, frowning and asking, "What did you just say?"
Li Yitao proposed solutions, such as wearing headphones, but the other party rejected them, saying it "lacked atmosphere and was uncomfortable." She said that throughout the negotiation process, no one realized that affecting the surrounding environment was wrong. Seeing that communication was futile, she could only return home amidst a chorus of accusations.
Wang Jingyi, a 30-year-old office worker from Shanghai, has also been disturbed by noise for over a year and is stuck in a negotiating dilemma.
Starting from March 2025, the 4-story residential building where she lives has been constantly disturbed by the noise from a dryer in a household on the 6th floor, making it difficult for her to fall asleep.
At first, Wang Jingyi decided to go and negotiate with her neighbor to resolve the issue. She went upstairs and knocked on the door, which opened a crack, revealing a man's half face.
She tried to keep her tone calm and even, "When your family uses the dryer, my family hears a very loud noise. It's really disturbing, can you come to my home to listen?"
"I'm not going, I'll do what I want at home," the man said, and then shut the door.
After being rebuffed, Wang Jingyi had no choice but to return to her bedroom and "tough it out". The constant humming noise from the ceiling to her pillow made her feel like she was "sleeping in a dryer, with all her organs vibrating along with the sound". For half a year, she took her quilt and moved to the sofa in the living room, wearing noise-cancelling headphones to listen to soothing music in an attempt to distract herself. However, she would still wake up with a headache and feeling tired the next day.
She also sought out neighbors on the 7th floor who were similarly being kept awake by the dryer noise and accompanied them to the 6th floor to communicate, but was met with a response of "I'll try my best" and the noise still didn't stop. Wang Jingyi was unbearable and went to communicate with them time and time again, while the other party became increasingly impatient, gradually escalating from politeness to irritability, and even directly scolded her at one point, saying: "Are you out of your mind?"
39-year-old Wang Peng is also driven crazy by the sound of children running upstairs every night. The "thud thud" sound always starts suddenly without warning, and Wang Peng and his wife are often startled awake while sleeping.
Initially, when Wang Peng went to communicate with his neighbor, he suggested laying down a crawling mat, but the neighbor thought it was too much trouble and dropped the matter. Wang Peng went upstairs to communicate three times, but later the neighbor wouldn't even open the door, yelling through the door: "It's none of your business what happens in my home!"
Volume dial turned back up after police leave
After negotiations reached a deadlock and having no other choice, Li Yitao went downstairs again and walked to the side of the square dance team, where he dialed 110 to report the incident to the police.
The police officers arrived, walked directly to the audio equipment, turned down the volume, and then approached to explain the reason, after which the leader of the square dance group did not say anything else.
The police officer also called the property manager, informing them that according to the property management regulations, the property management company is the primary responsible party for noise issues in the community and has a duty to handle the situation. However, the property manager appeared helpless, stating that they had previously spoken to Li Yitao, and each time they received a complaint, they would attempt to persuade him to stop, but he would ignore them, and they did not have the authority to forcibly intervene. The property management company had also reported the situation to the community residents' committee, but to no avail.
The police officers stayed at the scene for nearly half an hour, during which the music from the square dance was turned down to a level that could only be heard within about 15 meters of the speakers. However, as soon as the police left, the dance leader took a quick step to the speakers and turned the volume back up. "Do you know how much you mean to me, every day without you is unbearable," the song blared to the sky.
Li Yitao could only keep calling the police, with a maximum of 13 calls to 110 in one day. Every time the police arrived at the scene, the dance troupe would turn down the volume, and when the police left, the volume would be turned back up, making stopping the noise a "never-ending cycle".
Due to the high frequency of calling the police, Li Yitao has even figured out the police officers' shift schedules. She has calculated that in 2025, she contacted the police at least 130 times due to noise and went to the police station several dozen times. To simplify the process, the community police added her on WeChat, saying she can directly report noise issues via WeChat and they will immediately arrive to handle the situation.
Li Yita is not the only one to have complained about the noise disturbance from the square dancing, as residents of Building 2 and Building 3, located about 20 meters from the square dancing venue, have also reported it to the police.
After Wang Jingyi reported the incident, she encountered a similar situation to that of Li Yitao. Her neighbors would turn off the noise-making machines when the police came to the door, only to turn them back on after the police left.
After the police coordination fell into an "infinite loop," Wang Jingyi thought of many ways to communicate, such as expressing her willingness to buy shock-absorbing mats or shelves for the upstairs neighbors through the property management and residents' committee, but they all refused. After the residents' committee reflected the situation to the local street office, the street office paid for the installation of a clothes dryer bracket, and the vibration in the corridor finally decreased, but her bedroom was directly above the dryer, and she still couldn't sleep well.
The noise problem still hasn't been resolved, and Wang Jingyi is considering taking legal action. She has consulted with a lawyer, who told her that she would need to pay 8,000 yuan in legal fees upfront, followed by 18,000 yuan for a judicial appraisal of the noise source, and that it would take at least three months to get the case filed. The cost and time required to pursue a lawsuit are too high, so she hasn't submitted a complaint yet. To avoid the noise, she has no choice but to sleep in a separate room from her husband, but now her husband, who originally slept in the bedroom, is also constantly complaining of headaches.
Wang Peng, who was also troubled by the sound of children running, had reported the issue several times to no avail. He eventually resorted to a "not recommended" measure. He bought a Bluetooth speaker online, installed it on the ceiling, and played a 24-hour loop of "anti-noise" music composed of dense drumbeats, electric currents, and chair-banging sounds. Wang Peng himself moved to his parents' home temporarily.
15 days after the implementation of "measures", Wang Peng returned home to find that the floor above had suddenly become quiet, and for over half a year, there was only the occasional sound of a table being moved, with no more running sounds.
Doubao User Studies 8 Law Books to File Case Independently
To defend her rights, Li Yita began systematically researching noise-related laws and regulations in 2023, from the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law) to the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, the Public Security Administration Punishments Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Administrative Penalty Law of the People's Republic of China, studying a total of 8 books.
Over the past two years, she has reorganized her experiences according to legal provisions, preserving evidence of noise disturbances, including decibel readings she detected, police records, and chat screenshots with her landlord and others who accused her of causing disturbances, and itemizing the responsibilities of public security authorities in accordance with the law.
Li Yi wants noise rights protection to go beyond just "police mediation" and become a matter that everyone takes seriously.
Li Yi learned about law through self-study of legal books.
In August 2025, she submitted a request to the Lianjiang County Public Security Bureau to perform its duties in accordance with the law and the Fuzhou Municipal People's Government Office's "Notice on the Division of Departmental Responsibilities for Some Provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution", hoping that the bureau would handle the noise from the square dance downstairs in accordance with the law, as stated in the notice, "such illegal behaviors should be ordered to be corrected, warned or fined by the public security department".
The letter to the authorities proved effective, and about 10 days later, Lianjiang County Public Security Bureau assigned the task to the local police station, where the director located Li Yitao and filed a case regarding the noise complaint about the square dancing she had reported.
On September 9, the police station invited a third-party testing agency to the neighborhood, which measured a noise decibel level exceeding 70 decibels at a location 1 meter from the central plaza. The testing agency also measured the noise decibel level 1 meter outside Li Yitao's window, with a reading of 58.1.
According to the Government Information Disclosure Application Handling Notice issued by the Fuzhou Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, the residential area where Li Yita lives is a Class 2 noise environment functional zone (i.e., areas with commercial finance, market trade as the main function, or mixed residential, commercial, and industrial areas that require maintaining residential quiet). The environmental noise limit is 60 decibels during the day (6:00 am to 10:00 pm).
On October 21, the public security authorities terminated the investigation, citing that the decibel level at her home was not excessive and "no illegal facts were found". In other words, her previous repeated reports to the police and submissions of duty applications ultimately ended because the decibel value at her home did not exceed 60, and the noise pollution complaint was not established.
Li Yi Tao captured a reading of the noise detection meter downstairs
Having seen no actual progress, Li Yitao has shifted his focus to the regulatory level, hoping that attention from higher authorities can drive a solution to the problem.
On November 22, she submitted another letter to the Fuzhou Lianjiang Ecological Environment Bureau, requesting that the bureau take the lead in urging public security authorities to investigate and penalize the illegal conduct in accordance with the law.
However, the Ecology Bureau responded that on-site law enforcement is the responsibility of the public security authorities, but the Public Security Bureau had previously withdrawn the case, causing the rights defense to become stuck in a deadlock. Ultimately, the solution once again relied on persuasion and negotiation.
More Discreet Noise: Nearly 100,000 Origin Tracing Requests in 3 Years
Square dancing, children running, and other audible sounds are already difficult to address, but the source of low-frequency noise is even harder to pinpoint, leaving many troubled individuals at their wit's end.
This is a sound with a frequency between 20Hz and 200Hz, with a long wavelength and strong penetrating power, mainly relying on structural transmission, with vibrations propagating through solid structures such as walls, beams, columns, and floors of buildings.
Elevators, submersible pumps for oxygenating storefronts, and power transformers running continuously in basements are among the equipment that can cause vibrations in walls, which can spread in all directions through floors and beams, potentially affecting upstairs and downstairs neighbors, as well as those in adjacent units, and even transmitting through three or four floors.
The noise from the dryer that Wang Jingyi encountered was one such instance, where the dryer on the sixth floor was placed directly against the balcony floor, causing vibrations to transmit downward through the floor, and happened to be right above her bedroom ceiling.
She described the sound as inaudible to the ear, but more of a feeling, like "tens of vibration modes of a cellphone spread under you and vibrating at the same time, with the bed vibrating too".
It took her nearly three months to identify the source. The property management spent over half a month inspecting the corridor pipes and water pump room, then the residents' committee made phone calls to the residents upstairs and downstairs to confirm the noise, and finally, at 11 pm, they cut off the power to each household one by one, and when they cut off the power to the sixth-floor neighbor who was using a dryer, the humming noise disappeared, and when the power was turned back on, the noise returned, which is how they finally determined the source of the noise.
However, not everyone plagued by the issue can identify its source. Zhu Lin, a 42-year-old from Shandong, was also deeply troubled by low-frequency noise, prompting him to study acoustics on his own and build his own detection equipment. He has been sharing his knowledge of noise online since registering his Xiaohongshu account in 2023, and has so far handled over 100,000 low-frequency noise inquiries. At peak times, he receives more than 100 messages a day about low-frequency noise, with most asking: "There's a strange humming sound in my home, I couldn't find the source, and it's driving me crazy, I couldn't sleep every day."
What left a deep impression on Zhu Lin was a resident of Qingdao who was tormented by low-frequency noise for nearly a year, with poor mental state every day, and was eventually diagnosed with neurasthenia and depression. There was also a resident of Hangzhou who spent almost a year searching for the source of the noise in his own home, and at night, he would walk around the villa area with a flashlight, only to be mistaken for a thief by his neighbors and reported to the police.
Tracing low-frequency noise requires at least 7 specialized devices, which would cost tens of thousands of yuan if purchased outright, a sum many people cannot afford. Therefore, starting in June this year, Zhu Lin, who possesses professional equipment and understands acoustic principles, began offering detection services, becoming a "noise detective" who brings his self-made detection equipment to sites to analyze signals from sound and vibration detection, helping people find the source of the noise.
At the end of July, Zhu Lin went to Weifang, Shandong, where at least a dozen households in two residential buildings had been plagued by a 77Hz low-frequency noise for nearly a year. Local property management, neighborhood committees, and other departments went door-to-door issuing notices, coordinating a power outage for the entire building, and even coordinating with the adjacent chemical plant to suspend operations for five days, but the noise persisted. It wasn't until the power supply to the shared transformer room of the two buildings was cut off that the noise briefly disappeared, but after the power company implemented vibration reduction measures for the transformer room, the humming noise still existed.
After arriving at the scene, Zhu Lin conducted an investigation from 5 pm to 10 pm, using methods such as spectrum analysis and vibration sensors to gradually narrow down the scope, and finally combined with the building's floor plan to conduct modeling analysis, it wasn't until 4 am that he was able to lock down the suspected area to the wall next to the transformer room. He described himself as "like doing math problems on the college entrance exam", having almost exhausted all troubleshooting logic and then ruling each one out one by one.
For the homeowners, locating the source of the noise is a prerequisite for moving on to the next stage, and they are currently pushing relevant departments to renovate the transformer room and walls.
"Meeting Standards Doesn't Mean Exemption", Can New Laws Halt Noise Pollution?
For more people, the source of the problem has been found, and if negotiations are ineffective, they will still end up in the same cycle of rights protection as Li Yita.
On January 1, 2026, the revised Public Security Administration Punishments Law of the People's Republic of China came into effect.
Article 88 of the new law clearly stipulates the penalties for social noise pollution for the first time: those who violate laws and regulations on the prevention and control of social noise pollution, and still fail to cease the disturbance after being persuaded, mediated, and handled by grassroots mass autonomous organizations, owners' committees, property service personnel, or relevant departments, and continue to interfere with others' normal life, work, and study, can be detained for up to 5 days or fined up to 1,000 yuan; in severe cases, they can be detained for 5 to 10 days and may also be fined up to 1,000 yuan.
According to a query by ifeng.com, since the start of the year, public security authorities in multiple locations, including Beijing, Wuhan in Hubei, and Ningxia, have successively announced the law enforcement powers, procedures, and discretionary standards for Article 88. However, actually taking the step of imposing penalties still poses many practical difficulties.
For instance, "interfering with others' normal lives" is difficult to define. Li Yita, who studied the law, raised questions: "What is interference? What are the standards? How can I prove that I was disturbed by the noise? I haven't seen a clear, unified explanation for these questions so far.
Li Yi'tao recalled the rights protection process, with the civil police telling her that handling noise issues also comes with many difficulties, sometimes persuading people to stop dancing in public squares, but the individuals refuse to acknowledge that their behavior is disruptive, making it hard for the police to directly impose penalties.
On August 15, 2026, the issue was resolved in a low-frequency noise case.
On the same day, the Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China officially came into effect. The Qujiang District People's Court of Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, held a trial for a commercial low-frequency noise pollution liability dispute and pronounced a verdict in court.
In this case, the first-floor seafood store's water pumps and oxygenation pumps operated 24 hours a day, with low-frequency vibrations transmitted through the walls to the upstairs residents' homes, causing long-term insomnia and anxiety for resident Ms. Zhang.
In the view of Wu Yufang, a lawyer at Beijing Zhoutai Law Firm, the court did not determine "disturbance" solely based on whether noise decibel levels exceeded standards, but rather assessed it in light of the actual transmission of low-frequency vibrations and their impact on residents' daily lives. According to her understanding, multiple on-site inspections found that low-frequency vibrations generated by the continuous operation of the shop's water pumps and aerators traveled upward through the walls. Even after the defendant shop installed soundproofing cotton and replaced equipment with quieter models, significantly reducing airborne noise, Ms. Zhang's south-facing bedroom and living room still experienced persistent slight vibrations, which disappeared immediately when the equipment was shut off.
The presiding judge pointed out that the fact that the defendant's equipment continuously produced low-frequency vibration noise was objectively present, and even after self-repair, it still interfered with the plaintiff's normal life. The first-instance judgment ordered the defendant to complete the noise reduction and vibration reduction renovation of the facilities and equipment within a limited time, and to compensate the plaintiff for medical expenses of 121.4 yuan and spiritual damage solatium of 3,000 yuan.
Li Yitao is also aware of the case and has not given up on her noise pollution rights defense.
In January, she filed an administrative lawsuit with the Minhou County People's Court, arguing for the revocation of the local police station's administrative decision to terminate the case investigation. The police station argued that the decibel detection results confirmed the case did not constitute "manufacturing noise to disturb life," and that some residents also had the right to choose square dancing as a form of exercise. The police stated that the square dancing group's dancing time complied with local regulations, and after being admonished by public security authorities, they had also turned down the volume. The police claimed that Li Yitao had a duty to tolerate her neighbors and that her personal demands could not take precedence over the legitimate rights of other owners.
In July, the court made a first-instance judgment and rejected Li Yitaos's lawsuit request, against which she appealed.
"Everyone grows old. I understand and respect that seniors have a need to pursue spiritual fulfillment. I'm not asking them to stop dancing—I just hope they won't disturb the neighborhood, so we can come home in the evening to a quieter life," she said.
At the request of the parties involved, the names Li Yita, Wang Jingyi, and Wang Peng are pseudonyms.
Reference materials:
Low-frequency humming persists day and night, disturbing the peace. The Code for the Protection of Citizens' Residential Tranquility has been enforced in the first court case - a direct report on the trial of the first case under the Ecological Environment Code, Supreme People's Court, August 16, 2026
Noise That Meets Standards Can Also Be a Nuisance! The First Case Under the Ecological Environment Code Breaks the "Decibel-Only" Approach, CCTV News, August 17, 2026