At Fenglin Shunhe community in Weihai, eastern China"s Shandong Province, residents, property managers, community officials and square-dancing groups agreed to end dancing at 8:30 p.m. The main lights in the square switch off at that time, signaling that it is time for the dancers to leave.

　　The key is to respond quickly to complaints and give residents and activity groups a way to negotiate solutions, said Jiang Chunyan, head of the neighborhood committee.

　　In another community in Shenzhen, property managers have gone further by treating renovation noise as a process to be managed proactively rather than a problem to be addressed after complaints arise.

　　Renovation work is divided into nine stages and mapped on a visual noise-management chart. Property managers use the chart to carry out targeted inspections as work progresses. Contractors are also required to work only during designated hours and under fully enclosed conditions.

　　The program still faces gaps in terms of regional coverage and long-term maintenance. Quiet communities remain concentrated in a few cities, while older neighborhoods and parts of central and western China have fewer projects. Some communities also face difficulties maintaining noise-control measures after initial upgrades are completed.

　　The Ministry of Ecology and Environment plans to incorporate quiet-community development into China"s noise pollution prevention and control work for the 2026-2030 period. It has called for regular inspections, dynamic monitoring and follow-up visits to ensure that measures remain effective.

　　Zheng Shanshan, an official responsible for ecological affairs in Hangzhou"s Xiangfu Subdistrict, said the next step should extend noise management from individual communities to larger areas through tools such as sound-environment maps.