I am a collector of sounds. I carry a digital recorder with me and when I hear interesting or beautiful or striking sounds I try to capture them. This is one of my favorites.

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The story

The street where I captured this sound (you can see the man doing his exercises while listening to the rad

Last Spring when I spent a week in China as one of the winners of China Radio International’s “Charming Sichuan Knowledge Contest.”Along with nine other winners (from all over the globe) I spent a several days in Beijing, then flew to Chengdu for a whirlwind tour of Sichuan Province. On our first morning in Chengdu, I woke up early and slipped out of the hotel so that I could have a few minutes to wander the streets by myself. (During most of the trip was very tightly organized and moments in which I was free to simply explore were rare.) As I wandered the side streets of Chengdu, I heard a woman singing. I turned on my recorder and walked in the same direction. She was simply walking, singing (as you can hear) in a full voice through the early morning  streets. This is a “dirty” recording. Passing vehicles intrude on the song. At one point she slows down and I pass her, at which point her voice becomes quite loud on the recording. A little while after that I pass an old man on the sidewalk who is doing is morning exercises while listening to the radio. You can hear the broadcast as I pass. Eventually I stop and the woman continues along the narrow street.

Later that day I gave a short speech to the Sichuan Tourism Authority