Yes, but you need to fight for it! It sounds like you’ve got a lot of things to complain about. Make sure you copy and paste your complaints about noise and send them off to the EPA.
It’s still four months away but I dread the day weeks before and after Chinese New Year … fire crackers galore, day and night … 24/7
If someone’s having a noisy funeral near your apartment, why not “start” your scooter for half an hour at a time several times each day? Or why not get yourself a loud musical instrument and practise beside their funeral tent?
Or why not taxi the Enola Gay out of its hanger and ask Paul Tibbets to drop the big one on those creating the disturbance? That’d do the trick.
On top of complaining to the EPA, you also need to take an active role in lessening noise-pollution through active measures. My third-floor neighbor’s miniature dog would bark like crazy all day long and only stop once she got home in the evening. What did I do? Well, I wrote a note (in Chinese, of course) that was very polite and told her that her dog barks all day and maybe it’s because its missing something. The noise stopped for a month and then started again, so I wrote another note, which was less polite. It has now ceased 99% of the time.
Another dog, across the street, has the loudest and shrillest bark in the world and the neighbors keep it in their first-floor “extension” with plastic corrugated roof, which doesn’t block noise at all. Sure, I’m on the fifth floor, but I can hear it considering the cheapness of the windows on this rented apartment. Complaining to the “Lin Zhang” (neighborhood chief) did nothing. Throwing rotten fruit and rotten eggs did short-term wonders… but eventually, complaining to the EPA finally worked. I even bought a silent whistle… but it doesn’t really work, because you have to do it every time the dog barks… and that’s a lot of work. There’s this electronic “Bark Stopper” which costs about $50 USD and has an outdoor version specifically to shut neighbors’ dogs up.
In terms of horrible Karaoke, construction and noisy scooters… I haven’t figured out how to stop that. I was thinking of splashing red paint on the doors of consistent noise-makers, however. Haha… that would scare them (and it was done to one of my neighbors who was apparently a bad landlord.)
Throwing objects where wailing cats are will get rid of them, however.
In the end, however, I feel that the best offense is a good defense. If you didn’t stake out your rental unit or purchased property by standing on the ground floor for 168 hours straight, and you discover very unpleasant noise… you can basically only upgrade your windows to those Swan Windows I see on TV. They guarantee 300% satisfaction! 100% protection against thieves, 100% protection against noise, and 100% protection against something else…
It is also a known fact that concrete blocks out sound really well… so I’ve always wondered if putting some kind of concrete awning below your windows or around them or something would do any good.
Quality-built apartments feature recessed walls (where the beams and columns stick out from the side of the building), which partially protect against noise and against dirtying of outside walls.
I can’t take it. I’m about to go ballistic. Funeral in neighborhood all weekend. Noise, noise noise! Chanting, clanging, high-pitched horns, cymbals crashing, wailing all with LOUD SPEAKERS! At random times too. Just as it seems like it’s over…bamn! It starts up again.
I have kids trying to take naps who can’t because of the noise. Even playing quiet music, turning on a fan, etc doesn’t work.
Why must funerals be so damn noisy?
To scare away evil spirits, like you? And everything is calculated and programmed to the minute.
Did they play the tape of the wailing woman already?
Harhar, not funny man. My nerves are running thin.
Not yet. (Bracing for that)
I might pack the kids up and get a hotel room or go for a long drive.
The wailing tape is mostly early morning 6-7 AM the day of the funeral (burial).
What they are doing during the time (a few weeks to a month) the corps just lays there in the box is chanting funeral rites in interval of a week or so to get good passage to the other side.
And they use an amplifier to be sure the whole neighborhood knows someone passed away, so they get more white envelopes at burial day.
Yeah, I know all that.
Been to a few funerals here myself. It’s just annoying as hell, especially when you have little kids who have a sleep schedule. Mess with that and it’s hell trying to get them to sleep at night or wake up in the mornings.
Besides, is the loudspeaker necessary? Are the deities deaf? What did they do before loudspeakers?
There is tradition and culture and then there is being excessive.
It’s a rant, OK, so go to a nice hotel with a gym and swimming pool, spa and enjoy the time off.
You’ve been here so many years, you know the louder the better. The Sanxia Pig’s of God festival is so loud, you have like sometimes 10 bands playing the same screeching noise on amplifier, next to each other. Earplugs are a must.
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It’s (not joking here) so you can share in their grief and they can demonstrate their grief to a wider audience, the more people joining in the more face for the dead person, even if you’re not a willing participant.
Thankfully it’s a practice that has died out to a large extent, far less common these days than it used to be. If you can afford it best thing to do is just go on a mini break somewhere, you will be driven demented otherwise, speaking from painful experience.
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… in big cities.
It’s sad when loved ones pass away. But being obnoxious to other neighbors using speakers is a no go.
Blast back “Let It Go” on repeat?! j/k 
One of the living room temples in the neighborhood installed a big automatic bell on the porch and it rings early in the morning every day. If your windows are open it will wake you up. Very annoying in the summer.
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There is a car where the alarm goes off every 5 minutes. How do people have car alarms that sensitive?
Maybe its a Wokemobile 
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So, yeah…
Remember about a month ago I was complaining about loud noise from a funeral?
Well, just got back from celebrating CNY in Kaohsiung, putting the kids to bed, 10 o’clock on the dot the funeral noise starts up. Same funeral that’s been going on since 23 days ago!
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Let’s hope the authorities contain the coronavirus otherwise we’re all in for it.
Can likely look forward to it happening once a month for the next 6 months or so.