The only "peaceful" Starbucks I've been to in China was an empty one.  Otherwise, you'd be advised to bring your earphones to drown out the all the "outside voices" being used inside....

Vent away, though be prepared eventually to receive the Red Thumbs of Death, and criticism a la "you say Chinese Starbucks are noisy? Then you hate China so go back to your XXX country...".

In the meantime, vent away and here is your first green thumb....

Loud talking and noise in China????

You cannot be serious.

Such a peace love and sanguine race of people don't make noise. It's just our sensitive, western intolerance that's annoying.

i have a secret way of dealing with chinese people and starbucks. othergood cheaper coffee shops become less populated. surrender starbucks to the loud and rude. 

People don't notice when they are loud while happy. It;s like when I usually go to a quiet pizza restaurant with my girlfriend, and a bunch of foreigners get so loud that they can be heard 5 blocks away. Or when I finish work and take the subway, and a group of foreigner men speak so loud that you wouldn't even be able to hear yourself scream.

Don't worry about the mentally unstable downvoters. Vent all you want, and here's a dumpling. We're all in this together... except the wumaos.

I've seen that all too often. The last time was in a small restaurant, 9 tables, 6 taken. That much garbled noise gives me a headache. It's not just China, big family restaurants at home can be like this. I was having in dinner with two women and I could not hear anything they said. I kept saying why are they so loud? I yelled ''quiet'' and the two women acted like I was rude. I felt better, that makes us even.

I wouldn't eat in a crowed noisy Chinese restauant. If I can I sit outside. I hate when I go in and the place is empty and then fills up.

Vent away, 'tis good 4 u...   

I have a funny 'loud people in china story'...   my ex-gf and I were enjoying a nice meal in a nice restaurant (guangdong), and this kid somewhere in his 20's was speaking to his table in a voice that defied description.  I gritted my teeth for about 10 minutes,, then I lost it; I'm kinda naturally hot-headed,,,  so, I jumped up, walked over to his table and asked him what he thought about me smashing his head through the table ?   rather humorous I thought... He got the 'deer caught in headlights' look and tried explain he wasn't doing anything...   My temper passes about as quick as it comes so, I just kinda told him,   yeah, whatever,,,, and to be honest he was just a kid, and in case u don't know,, a laowai cannot get in a fight in China...   it's not gonna work out good 4 u if u do......  

funny thing is,, my gf blamed me,, I was too something ,, can't recall what she said.  too harsh about it is what she meant though. I kinda think she was trying to calm me down,, but on the inside she was happy I cost the little prick his lame-ass 'face'.

anyway,,, for you newbies out there (old-timers, correct me if I am wrong), u will notice over time that Chinese do not correct other Chinese about their behavior. That is why u see what u see.  a Kid can shit on the floor in a restaurant, and no one will say a got-danged thing.  Strange behavior I think, but that is how it is.  That is why anything goes in the MK.

I recently went to a restaurant with my wife. A man walked out of the bathroom, and hawked a big loogie onto the shiny, clean (well, not anymore...) restaurant floor, and nobody batted an eyelash. I instinctively got up and yelled at him to clean it up and called him a pucking disgusting pig... but my wife pulled me aside, "This is china; people here do not care, they always do this disgusting thing. They are disgusting, and they will not change."

*BUMP* If you wanna vent, you can at least order a Venti sized drink while doing it!  This post is better than the other crap on the front page right now, sorry guys. 

I never use 'free wi-fi' without earplugs. Anywhere!