The capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region is considered the "quietest"of China's 31 capitals, while Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou Province the "noisiest"by a report on the country's noise pollution in 2015 from the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Wednesday.
Lhasa is the only capital which does not exceed the national noise standard's first-level at 49 decibels (dBA) during daytime. According to the report, the maximum noise level of the first level national noise standard is under 50 dBA.
Guiyang ended up last with an average noise level of 58.9 dBA, while Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province registered 58.3 dBA. They are the only two capitals that exceeded 58.0 dBA.
The acoustic environmental quality in provincial capitals across the country in 2015 is better than in 2014, said the report.
In all 321 surveyed cities, the average acoustic environmental quality was at 54.1 dBA. Environmental authorities received 354,000 complaints against noise in 2015, or 35.3 percent of the total environment-related complaints, and 99.5 percent of the complaints were properly handled. Construction sites are the major source of irritating noise, accounting for 50.1 percent of the complaints.
