I shot twenty seconds of this because I know you people outside of Taiwan really miss this sound.....
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Try living in Montreal. It's even worse there. There they start at 6 in the morning and the sound can go on for months, or even years on the same building or street work (particularly the latter, because you have union regulations to take into account). I'm serious. In comparison, it's quite quiet to live in Taiwan. Even freeways and overpasses don't take very long to build here.
ReplyDeleteSort of like this morning when a dual-line of 20 foot firecrackers was lit off this morning by the construction site outside my window. Then it was followed up by some loud chanting and "AHHss" by the blessing crowd.
ReplyDeleteThey did that outside my place between midnight and 4:00am for a week.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lave the country I think the noise I won't miss is the rubbish and recycling trucks every morning from 8am to 10am, seven days a week, making a lie-in impossible. Loud is not the word .. i'd choose pervasively penetrative ... of your brainwaves ... thanks for the jack hammer though ;)
ReplyDeleteYour new morning call?
ReplyDelete:-)
P.S. Michael, you still have my blog listed as gone, but not forgotten.
ReplyDeleteGone? I think not! I was only in Montreal for 10 months. I have been back in Taiwan (totalling 3 years in Taiwan now). I still write posts, even though I do it less frequently (although, from what I have seen, even you do post somewhat less frequently, as well).
Awwww! And here I thought you were going to record the unforgettable sound of the Beethoven garbage trucks.
ReplyDeletehaha, my apartment in Tamsui had a lovely morning call like that...it lasted from 8am until 12pm. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteSound like machine gun, man ... :)
ReplyDeleteI was hoping it would be a rubbish collection truck, or maybe a recording of the exercise music they play every weekday morning at the local school which you could hear for a good half-mile around. This is only a tiddler compared to the mainland, let me assure you!
ReplyDeleteawesome, thx for reminding
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Brings back fond memories for me. There was a stretch of road outside our building that would get torn up and repaired every single year I lived in Taiwan -- religiously. They would start at 12am and use a jackhammer that was attached to a digger. Rattattattattatatatataaaa. Creeeeaak...BANG...creeaaaak...BANG. It was like a symphony.
I'm sure this was part of a underground deal made the KMT local government and the construction company.
Noise pollution, as anyone will know living in Taiwan, is an ignored issue.
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Construction projects are carefully timed to coincide with election years. The 11th hour construction projects allow politicians to demonstrate that they accomplished something concrete (pun intended) during their term and didn't only use their office to enrich themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe second factor is that these projects serve to buy off the organized crime syndicates and their far flung guan xi networks.
Taipei (Tatung neighborhood) was tranquil compared with Brooklyn. Car stereos and morons shouting at each other on the street at 2 a.m. are worse than jackhammers.
ReplyDeleteI still live here and the sound brought tears to my eyes...
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