City's first no-smoking restaurant me arse! It's been that way for years at my local and favourite veg place, the Jingsi at Dafosi. It's always pretty packed too, but then I suppose it's the kind of clientele that won't mind. I'm a filthy chain-smoker but somehow manage to get through a meal without faking a trip to the public toilets just for a crafty puff.

The human body can go -- pretty easily -- two or three minutes without oxygen. Just hold your breath.

But it seems smokers can't go half an hour without a butt.

Then again, I guess since they can't taste their food anyway, the smoke is the only pleasurable part of the experience.

Since smoking kills 1 in 3 smokers, I guess if the numbers in the article are right, then that's a 100-million-mouth population solution for China right there...

I have stayed on "non-smoking" floors in 5 star hotels in China. Doors are left wide open while 4 - 6 men sit around and smoke... Not one hotel staff person has ever said anything to them about stopping. I doubt anything will change.

No smoking in offices, restaurants and hotels ? How about sports events ? Will I be choking to death watching the opening ceremony ?

Personally,I think making smoking in public places illegal is ludicrous--owners of the hotels or the restaurants should be allowed to decide for themselves if smoking is allowed. I have no problem with increasing regulations about air quality and actual division of smoking and non-smoking sections, but I think the government needs to back off a bit.and let's wait and see what that law looks like and ppl's reactions then.

while i'm not a smoker myself and my parents dont smoke either,but the thing is +70% of my uni fris around me turn to be like smoking.i admit that it was SO nice not to come back to the dorm smelling like I took a bath in an ashtray.but,I don't think there needs to be a law banning smoking everywhere though.

i think if one cant stand the smell of the smoke,the stains on someone's clothes,the ashes and butts,the best way is to choose someother area to stay or keep a distance from them.So yeah, I'm definitely more apt to eat, drink and be merry in a less smoking establishment.but,banning smoking is still not that realistic and i believe it is waiting for accepting more complaints in the near furture.

a voice from a non-smoker

Absolutely a good thing to most people.

But I think that besides all other conventional factors, one big factor that determines Chinese government's attitude on baning smoking is, again, money. The tobacco industry brings huge amount of money to the country's GDP and tax income, not to mention that it also creates millions of job opportunities. The government can't afford being too harsh on its anti-smoking policy. In other countries where public health care is free like UK and Canada, more cancer patients means more government expense.

I don't mean to be cynical, but profit is always a big factor behind many things...

I think it is a nice idea - yet I'm am a bit doubtful that it will change much.

Even if they were able to cut down on smoking in public places, there is always the beautifully polluted Beijing air to increase your risk for lung cancer

I tend to agree with the Zhang Baozhen, deputy chief of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, who last year criticized attempts to ban smoking in various places by saying "Smoking harms people's health, but restraining smoking threatens social stability."

There's a report on it on Danwei here.

Who here smokes Zhong Nan Hai? Man I miss those. Too bad I quit smoking.

But since I'm smoke free now, I say let's ban Smoking in restaurants. The Chinese government can do this, being a one party system and all that.

The "Big Pizza" buffet restaurant chain has been smoke-free since it began in Beijing in 2003. I used to patronize the one in Fengtai district but there are about 20 of them in Beijing now plus one in Qingdao and a couple in Guangzhou.

I usually succeed in liberating a corner of most restaurants just by making my demand known to the hostess upon entering: ("拜托你带我们去不抽烟的解放区"。。。something like that)