Starting from May 1 smoking will be prohibited in all restaurants and hotels in China. This restriction is valid for the majority of public places as well. This requirement has been recently issued by the county’s Health Ministry.
However, it is still not clearly known how the government is going to apply this rule and how it will watch its fulfillment. At the moment no specific penalty guidelines are issued, so the ban sounds more like a statement. The only information provided by the government concerns the fact that violators of this rule can be fined and the sum of the fine can reach up to 30,000 yuan (approximately USD 4,580). This is not the first attempt to regulate smoking in public places. Three years ago the government issued the rule according to which all restaurants and bars must offer special non-smoking areas for all visitors. However, that rule was largely ignored by vast majority of China’s accommodations and restaurants.
There’s no wonder why China tries to regulate smoking. Currently the country occupies the first place in the list of most smoking countries. Approximately each third smoker in the world lives in China.