Younger people watched with interest. Some of them had vague memories of the singsong tones, but few could imitate them because they have disappeared under the pressure of Shanghai's relentless urbanization drive of the past two and a half decades.

"As a child I used to dash out of the house whenever a peddler came by singing about his icecream or his lollipops. My mother used to have our broken umbrellas repaired and knives sharpened at our doorstep," said 35-year-old Hu Huirong who was brought up in an old lane on Shanghai's West Jianguo Road. "Those are the sweetest memories of my childhood."

China's largest city today is clean, tidy and modern. "But life is not as convenient: you have to walk two blocks to the nearest sweet shop. My five-year-old son has never even seen a peddler."

Hawkers' voices are disappearing from nearly all Chinese cities, according to a survey carried out last year by the China Intangible Heritage Research Center.

It said hawkers' voices are the third most endangered historical sounds after "haozi"-- work songs sung by a group of workers to synchronize their movements, and a centuries-old technique of mimicking sounds made by birds and animals.

"Sounds of the past are part of the city's cultural heritage," said Wang Haibin, an executive with Shanghai Media Group who came up with the idea of a sound museum.

His virtual museum also has sound bites from Shanghai Radio broadcasting live the launching of a historic ship in the Huangpu River and the first trolley bus along downtown Nanjing Road 50 years ago. "They record milestones in Shanghai's development," said Wang.

The audio documents also include a conversation between Dr. SunYat-sen and his wife Soong Qing Ling, as well as the original voices of Lei Feng, a Mao-era model soldier who spent his life helping the needy, and Peng Jiamu, a Shanghai-born scientist who went missing 27 years ago during an expedition across the Lop Nur desert in northwest China.

The Chinese have become increasingly aware of the importance of preserving the heritage of the past in recent years. Last year, the State Council published its first 528 items of state-level intangible heritage items, including the Spring Festival, Peking Opera, acupuncture, the Legend of Madame White Snake and Shaolin Kungfu.

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