If you lived in a country that had a national holiday that was celebrated with loud music, you could.
Just last night it went on and on, almost every hour on the hour someone set of fire crackers. Terrible, it’s four days after new year and they keep going. It should be regulated somehow. First two days, no problem but then it should stop.
Geez y’all want some cheese with that w(h)ine?.. The fireworks are part of the celebration. If fireworks were legal at New Year in america (like July 4th), you can bet it’d be going off then. If y’all are so sensitive just buy some ear plugs. I enjoy it actually. Of course this is someone who’d “surf” out a cali earthquake too. So…
I think that’s the point - there’s stricter regulation. And if you started lighting them at 3:00 in the morning in residential areas, the police would shut you down pretty quick. :neutral:
I remember in Australia when I was a kid fireworks were legal and fun.
However, every so often some strapping young lad armed to the teeth with a bandolier full of penny bangers, and skyrockets up the kazoo would go off like a hezbilar freedom fighter. You never see or hear of that in Taiwan, although I guess it happens fairly frequently. What you do hear of, however, is Uncle Hao’s cracker factory going up in a final hurrah and a news report of 35 dead.
Well in Canada we have noise laws. After 10 o’clock if you are in a residential neighbourhood you gotta keep the noise down. Granted there hasn’t been an attempt at zoning here but shooting off fireworks at 2 or 3 in the morning is too much. I mean people have to work and sleep. Maybe Taiwanese people are just more selfish than other people? Was unable to sleep until 4 this morning because of all the noise again.
I think the nut here is that the fireworks issue only happens once a year for a short time.
Believe me, if you set them off any other time the police will come. I have first-hand experience of this on more than one occassion. 
I’m pretty firmly in the ‘people are people’ camp - have you ever wondered WHY there are noise laws in the West? I’ve been pissed off by loud parties/music from neighbours in Australia more times than I can remember but mostly I just shrug it off. Tried calling the police exactly once, at 2am - the quiet lasted for a good 10 minutes after they left as I recall. If your question was ‘perhaps Taiwan is less strictly regulated than some other places?’ then I’d agree.
For those that argue about the noise being a pain because you have to get up the next morning for work… You have to remember MOST (as in 75%+) don’t have to go to work the next morning (from last wed to this mon). This is the only time when the Taiwanese have a real vacation. There aren’t any real holidays (except for a day in Feb) as I recall. And the standard # of vacation days are 7. This is the time when a lot relax, spend time with family, and just let it rip because the neighbors don’t have to get up early the next morning.
So before y’all bitch/whine. Figure out the circumstances. If you have to work, too bad your job sucks. 
Anyway if you think this is bad, you have some more coming during the lantern festival. 
Enjoy!
P.S. And if you hear a series of 21 bottle rockets going off near simultaneously… that was me.
Bitan was terrible up until this year because the Taipei mouth-breathers, who consider Bitan a “resort area” :shock: come down , stay all night and set off firecrackers all day and practically all night (up until 4am or so, beginning again at around 7am). Ask Imaniou if you don’t believe me.
This year, however, there were plenty of cops around who stopped them at around 1am. I guess we stinky intolerant furriners weren’t the only ones complaining.
Well excuse me for wanting to be able to sleep at night. You know, back in the US we have a little occasion known as Independence Day where in most places (even where it is illegal due to fire danger like much of California) there’s quite a lot of fireworks being set off as a traditional, cultural celebration. However we someone manage to maintain this tradition without the necessity of setting firecrackers at all hours of the day and night. I’d be hard pressed to recall anytime I’ve heard firecrackers set off in the US after 11pm, and most people know to knock off around 10pm. To me, there’s absolutely no excuse for lighting off firecrackers between midnight and 8am. There’s absolutely no tradition that says that you must be able to set off firecrackers at any time you please. Those of you who insist on saying that this is insensitive are just blowing smoke.
PS: Rumor has it the big plastics fire in Linkou a couple of days ago was caused by firecrackers. Is that another thing you can just say “oh it’s tradition to burn down a few factories!” Yeah right.
You’re excused jlick. It’s just too bad for you then. If it’s such a big deal buy some earplugs for bloody sake (as mentioned previously). I can even swing by with some whistling bottle rockets to test for ya.
As for the reference to the states, actually firecrackers are pretty much illegal all over. Apparently, people felt that the citizens were incapable of handling such things. Whereas, here it’s not problem. I’ll let you figure out the implications. And again it’s different when referring Independence day vs. Lunar New Year. Most people have to work the next day in the states. Here in Taiwan hardly anyone does. So as a page from the book of democracy… majority rules regardless if it’s right or wrong in the eyes of the minority.
Sleep well all.
P.S. Gee and there aren’t a lot of fires caused by fireworks in the states or fires in general by careless people. roll
The Taiwanese are merely admitting that they’ve turned into a bunch of limp-wristed pansys – they’re such wimps these days that its become that much harder for them to frighten Nien away so they need more and more firecrackers.
As opposed to a bunch of limp-wristed, non-Taiwanese, pansies who whine and bitch instead of going out and spending 10NT to disarm the problem.
These last three days, the disturbance from those fuckwits setting off firecrackers has been even worse than it was during the CNY holidays. It’s been costing me precious sleep, and I’m getting more and more pissed off about it. If I could get my hands around the necks of those cretinous jerks…
Three brothers injured themselves playing with fireworks today (might have been yesterday - saw it on TV news).
Seems like the little one is now blind. Sad. No doubt the parents are telling themselves that he was unlucky.
I gotta be honest here. Although the firecrackers don’t bother me, I can sympathize for those of you out there losing sleep. I thought the firecrackers/fireworks would stop last Monday (it being the last holiday for most companies/people). But apparently I was wrong. My gf informed me that fireworks go on and on until Latern festival. Which isn’t until Feb 5th or something like that. Doh!
All I can say for those of you losing sleep… keep praying for rain.
Still quiet on the hill.
It’s this time off year again that the friggin’ idiots don’t want anyone to have a good nights rest … all night and all day they are setting off the firecrackers and fireworks … it’s going on in Sanxia for about two weeks now … no respect, no common sense … bentan …
A prime example: Last night in my apartment on Fu Shing road, I heard some rather loud, close fireworks. “Hm, that’s odd,” I said to myself, “Usually they’re a little further away from here just because the street is so busy and there’s no room for them.”
When I went to the window to check, the level of traffic in the road wasn’t having any effect on the fireworks shooters - they were coming out of the 15th floor windows of the apartment building across the way!