Are Beijingers ready to ditch the cigarettes?

There are over 350 million of them, and one in three cigarettes smoked in the world are smoked in China, according to the World Health Organization.

China is not the place to be if you want to avoid smokers.  But life could be about to get better for non-smokers in Beijing as the government pushes towards its stated aim of a ‘smoke-free Olympics.' In January, Beijing officials issued a draft law, expected to come into force this month, which bans smoking in office spaces and 70 percent of hotel rooms, and requires restaurants to limit smoking to clearly-marked areas. Errant smokers will be hit with 50RMB fines.

But will the new measures actually be more than pre-Olympics PR? The signs aren't overly promising - besides the sheer prevalence of smoking in Beijing, previous attempts to combat it haven't exactly been roaring successes. A voluntary ‘ban' on smoking in restaurants in 2006 was almost universally ignored. And when the government recently wrote to 30,000 Beijing restaurants asking them to go non-smoking, few did. At present, about 0.2 percent of restaurants in Beijing have non-smoking areas, according to Dr. Evelyn Fang of the Beijing United Family Hospital.

Smoking bans in other areas have had mixed results, too. October's ‘Green Taxi' policy, for example, introduced 100-200RMB fines for drivers and passengers caught smoking in taxis. Though the numbers of smoking cabbies does seem to have fallen, smoky taxis are still common - and when Time Out asked Beijing taxi drivers about the ban, the majority wrongly said the ban was just for passengers and not applicable to drivers. Even the 1996 ban on smoking in gyms, schools and public spaces isn't always heeded - most Beijing gym-goers will be familiar with wafts of smoke in changing rooms.

In terms of restaurants, any smoking limit would be a culture shock to most Beijingers. ‘We like the idea of a smoke-free restaurant but it's just not feasible and would kill our business', says Ms Cui, manager at Xinjiang restaurant Crescent Moon. Men, in particular, like to come here and smoke. We've had situations where waitresses have discouraged men from smoking, and they've been shouted at; customers just get furious if they can't smoke.'

       But it can be done. One of the Liulitun branches of Meizhou Dongpo introduced a full non-smoking rule in October. The Chinese and international press, who inaccurately reported that it was the first Chinese restaurant in Beijing to ban smoking (vegetarian restaurants Pure Lotus and Jingsi, to name two, had already imposed bans), jumped on the story when the manager reported a 20 per cent drop in the number of customers.

But a manager at Meizho Dongpo, surnamed Dong, says things are now picking up. ‘It's true that the occupancy fell at the start of the ban, but business is recovering now,' she says. ‘At first it's different for people, but now they've got used to it. We certainly aren't going to change the policy, and we're going to stay smoke-free beyond the Olympics.' Ms Dong admits, however, that the Meizhou Dongpo chain is not planning to repeat the ban in other restaurants. ‘Meizhou Dongpo has 19 branches, but we're the only one which is completely smoke-free - that's because we're close to the gynaecology and obstetrics hospital, and because there are more non-smokers in the area. In general, it's very tough to discourage people in China from smoking in restaurants.'

After banning smoking just weeks after it opened at the end of last year, popular Lido restaurant SALT's business certainly hasn't suffered as a result of its non-smoking policy. ‘For us, it's been a huge success,' says owner Gaby Alves. ‘We've been full pretty much since we opened, and no-one has complained; even smokers are appreciating the fact that they can really enjoy the food. We're lucky, though, in that our bar (where smoking is allowed) is quite far from the eating area.'

It won't necessarily be easy to convince everyone, though. Zhang Baozhen, deputy chief of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, said last year that smoking bans would cause riots. ‘Smoking harms people's health, but restraining smoking threatens social stability,' he said. ‘Smokers rioted when the former Soviet Union collapsed because they could not get any cigarettes... the principle applies in China as well.' Officials against the ban have also pointed to the 250 billion RMB the government made from tobacco-related taxes in 2005.

Though it seems that heavy smoking Beijing has a long way to go, there's encouragement from the fact that smoking bans in places like the UK, Australia, France and certain US states have been almost universally hailed as successes. Public support has also generally warmed up after bans have been introduced, suggesting that initial skepticism can be overcome - in Ireland, for example, public support for the smoking ban rose by 15 per cent (to an emphatic 87 per cent) after it was implemented and in Scotland it rose by 13 per cent (to 69 per cent). In New York City, restaurant guide Zagat found that 23 per cent more people ate out after smoking was banned in restaurants in 2003. Perhaps Beijingers just need to see what it's like to eat in smoke-free restaurants and return home smelling fresh.