China Travel: Smoke 'Em While You Can
We can't imagine that the latest pre-Olympics news from Beijing will make organizers less stressed. Officials in the capital are promising a smoke-free games, and that means stubbing out cigs in parks, bus and train stations and even some restaurants. It's gonna be quite a project: China is the world's top tobacco producer and consumer.
While Olympic venues will have full-on bans, most of Beijing is easing into the restrictions. One restaurateur says an outright switch to non-smoking would never work:
We're planning to gradually expand our non-smoking area, but it would be difficult to entirely ban smoking from the restaurant in one go. After all, everyone knows the old Chinese saying, "A smoke after a meal makes you feel like an immortal."
There are about 350 million smokers in the country, so it doesn't seem likely that they'll all quit by August. In true Chinese fashion, smoking police will be deployed during the games to make sure no one's breaking the rules.
We don't encourage you to, but if you've gotta light up, don't fret. The current fine for smoking where you shouldn't? $1.50.
Related Stories:
· China Expands Effort to Make Olympics Smoke-Free [NPR]
· China Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Beijing Olympics coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: tsc_traveler]
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