Listening to The Sounds of Beijing
11 PM on the Third Ring
It’s 11pm here in Beijing.
I can hear the sound of the third ring road.
Although I don’t live particularly close to it
A constant flow of traffic.
Possibly a slight, light tinnitus, now I stop to think about it.
A dog barking.
Is this tinnitus even real? I start prompting AI.
Some beeping horns and more dogs barking.
I never realised there were so many noises.
I move to another room to test the source
The pipes make a sound.
The wind blows against the window.
The fridge is making a low humming noise, which might be what I mist-took for tinnitus. Or it could be the air conditioning.
A louder sound of traffic which must be a lorry.
These background noises are so loud.
A vehicle reverses, and some more beeps.
The flow of traffic on the third ring is almost like a river or waterfall.
I can hear a sports car or a motorbike accelerate.
With some more beeping.
Now it sounds like a bus. I recognise it from when I once took a 3 hour bus ride in Wuhan.
I once ate in a Chinese hotpot restaurant in Guilin, which had a power cut. The cut removed all the noise of the cooking, the electrics and it sounded so silent.
We forget that we have all this background noise, we just tune it out.
With the wind and the traffic and beeping and the fridge. I can hear at different times depending on what I focus on.
I’ve been learning to write by focusing on a specific, by exploring some specific direction, rather than with a grand vision in mind.
Because by exploring in this way it’s more real and honest, and often more profound, because it’s based on something real.
In this one I was trying to be more descriptive, but it ended up being an exploration of sounds rather than how I described it.
And who said writing has to be a certain way?
I am fascinated by the huge potential there is in the world. There are so many different directions you can take and things you can focus on.
The printer making a small re-calibration.
Yes that must be what I heard earlier too.
A neighbour closes a door outside.
I once had the idea to make a music video of Beijing by capturing the sounds.