The effects of anthropogenic noise pollution on animals and human beings are receiving more and more concern, yet little literature is available about the effects of traffic noise on human and mammals at either behavioral and physiological levels. The present work investigated the effects of road-traffic noise in Beijing on anxiety behavior, haematological and stress parameters of the golden hamster Mesocricetus auratus. We individually and continuously exposed 14 adult male hamsters (7:7 = experimental: control group) to playbacks of digital audio recordings (road traffic noise or laboratory background noise) for 1 hour by a speaker (30W) next to the cage at standardized pressure levels (SPL), measured in decibels (dB). The traffic noise recordings were.collected at four points along the 2nd and 3rd ring roads of Beijing one week prior to the exposure, and the laboratory background noise recordings were recorded on the day of the test. The average traffic noise level was 80±10 dB SPL, and laboratory background noise was 50±4 dB SPL. We then tested and examined the anxiety behaviors of each hamster from the two groups in an open field right after the noise exposure. Finally all subjects were sacrificed to sample blood. Haematological parameters, serum cortisol level, ALT, AST, SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, TAOC, MDA and lysozyme activity were measured. The results show that no significant differences were found in anxiety behaviors of hamsters from the two groups. Blood platelet level of the experimental group decreased remarkably compared with that of the control group (P=0.044), while there was no obvious difference for other haematological parameters between the two groups. Stress responses did not vary much between the two groups, except GSH-Px activity, which was extremely decreased in the road noise treatment group (P < 0.001). Serum lysozyme level of the experimental group was also lower than that of the control (P = 0.051). The results indicate that 1 hour exposure to road traffic noise in Beijing has impaired some of the physiological functions of the golden hamster, albeit there is no obvious influence on anxiety behavior.