Beijing to ban smoking ahead of Olympics: fat chance.

Beijing is to ban smoking in most public places from May 1 as part of its efforts to improve the city ahead of the Olympics, state media reported on Monday.

Lighting up in the Chinese capital will be prohibited in all restaurants, offices and schools, becoming the first city in China to have such a comprehensive ban, the China Daily reported.

Hotels must also have rooms for non-smokers, but the proportion is still being discussed, a tobacco control expert involved in drafting the new rule told the paper.

Bars, meanwhile, will be required to clearly separate smoking from non-smoking areas, according to the newspaper.

China has about 350 million smokers, or about a quarter of its population, and accounts for a third of the world's smokers, according to official statistics.

About a million people die of smoking-related diseases each year in China.


at first, when i read the headline, I thought it was insane, absurd, ridiculous. telling people htey can't smoke..China would totally try to do that.
but really, theyre just playing catchup with the rest of the world.