Sound of Silence??? NOT!!!!!!

When I first arrived in China, I was amazed at the hustle and bustle of this country. But one thing that boggled my mind was the noise. The population is quite dense as you can imagine, so, the noises are something you cannot ignore. 

In the beginning the sounds of constant beeping car horns were a little aggravating and en-nerving, and the loud, loud Chinese speak/screaming at each other on their cell phones... AGH!!!! I always thought that they were angry.. but no!!! I guess they just don't trust technology to transfer the sound correctly... : ) But once you realize that this is the case, it's quite funny... Imagine being in a grocery store, and all you here is a foreigner ( Chinese ) with a high pitched voice, SCREAMING into their phone, but laughing and having a good old time... weird!!!! But the real funny thing is, is that they all, or most, finish their phone calls with, "uh, uh, uh... Bye bye ". These are 3 BIG UH UH UH's ... WHAT?????  So, so bizarre.... but amusing..... : )

Then you have the beeping and honking of the horns... especially the taxi's.. and they are EVERYWHERE!!!! And they beep at everybody and everything.... They are honk happy!!!!! You can imagine with the dense population here, that there are pedestrians and mopeds and bicycles and cars til the eye can see. So there is always something to beep at, and if you are a new ex-pat here, it can grit on your nerves and be a bit scary... You always think that you are in the way, so you want to move, but really, they are just warning you that they are coming through, BEWARE!!!!! But, you know what? You become accustomed and a bit numb to these absurd noises....

So these are some sounds that you would here in public places, but I live in a nice quite community, a complex of skyscraper apartments where the sound bounces off the buildings and creates a daily pattern of purring melodies... At first you fail to identify them, as you know not the habits of this mysterious  culture... But once you enter a routine, you start individualizing the tones and notes of the daily grind... 

One of the particular sounds is a" toc toc toc toc toc toc toc toc toc ...." and it is coming from everywhere , always at the same time of the day.. Late morning and late afternoon. At first it boggles your mind and you just cannot put you finger on what this pounding is????? And then it hits you... They are chopping their food!!!! They use only a cleaver and board and they go at it with gusto!!!! So now this sound is a culture difference for me and is music to my ears...

Another sound which is quite peculiar in a residence area like ours , is a rooster crowing every morning... til one day, you don't hear him anymore... I bet dinner was good that night, then oops!!! another rooster appears.... He'll be someones dinner soon again.... : )

So there... a bit of my ears I've shared with you... 

Your word of the day..." shengyin" pronounced - sheng-yin- which means : melody

Cheers... Pauline : )