The custom of middle-aged and elderly women dancing together in public squares as a form of exercise has its critics. This became obvious after an incident last month in which a group of dancing women in Wuhan was showered with feces by neighbours angry about the noise.

Now Guangzhou is to become the first city to crack down on the activity due to the amount of noise complaints. New regulations will be issued by the Guangzhou People’s Congress in late 2014 to state that no noisy group dances or exercises may be held in parks or near schools, hospitals, residential buildings or government facilities, Global Times reported yesterday.

A Guangzhou resident told The New Express that, as well as being noisy, the dancers took up too much public space.

The paper has more:

The draft also rules that parks should have areas for activities, and that citizens should not carry out noisy activities in quiet areas, and that violators could face fines of up to 1,000 yuan ($164.2).

Chen Xiaoqing, an official with the Guangzhou legislature, said that there will be a decibel standard to define “noisy activities.” Chen also said that the parks have to control the noise created by such group activities and that they will have disputes with some citizens who enjoy such activities, and this is why the regulations need to be more specific.

In an online survey started by Sina Weibo on Wednesday, over 70 percent of nearly 3,000 participants said they support the regulation and that it should be promoted to a national level regulation.

However, 15 percent disapproved, and said it would restrain the exercising activities of elderly people.

Do you find these ladies annoying or do you find them to be one of China’s charming quirks?