Greetings from Taoyuan, has anyone dealt with this before:
A new pub has just opened up next door to my wife’s folks, and the weekend noise from the bar goes on until 5 am.
Suggestions?
Join the party?
No seriously, I guess your chances are only having better guanxi than the bar owner…
smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/
CustomContentDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&content=11001
just a thought…
Haha… actually, you should have your wife (or if you can read Chinese) check out the local ordinances on noise. Believe it or not, there are these type of rules! I think you can check at the local ministry of housing or something… anyway, just because a lot of people ignore the law in Taiwan, doesn’t mean there aren’t laws that can’t be enforced.
If this using-the-law-to-your-advantage thing doesn’t work out, you could always just get your in-laws a new place! That, or hire some liumang.
In Taipei City at least they’re finally coming down hard on noise pollution between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am.
Not sure if that helps you in Taoyuan though. :s
In Chungli there is a bar I know of. Their neighbors phoned the police on them regularly for noise pollution and after a few warnings the police started to get really annoyed…and then the bar owner started to get really nervous. She put up signs outside telling every to respect the neighbors and she was always “yelling” at people to be quiet…anyway…point is…if you call the police enough…they’ll do something.
Don’t forget election is coming.
If police don’t do anything,then you know who is the best person you can ask for a help.
So, what are the options (other than moving, which we are certainly actively considering) if the noisy neighbor is a mentally ill man screaming at the top of his lungs on a daily basis, in the apartment next to you? 
Wait until his family comes to visit him and confront them in the hall.
We had a loopy old granny who was basically being stashed in an apartment across the lane, and she used to stand on the balcony and scream and cry to beat the band.
People started calling the cops who would come around but couldn’t do much, and then when her grown up kids came, several of the neighbors told them they had to move her or something.
So they did.
Target the family, if there are any to be found. And keep the police going there regularly – they may speed up finding the guy’s family.