In a push for a smoke-free city during the Summer Olympics this August, the non-smoking areas have been extended to all restaurants. Larger restaurants have already separated smoking from non-smoking areas over 20 days ago. "No Smoking" signs have replaced ashtrays on the tables of many restaurants.
Beijing hosts over 40,000 restaurants; for small and medium-sized restaurants, this ban is going to be hard to implement. An owner commented: "With only a dozen tables in a confined space, how can non-smokers be separate from smokers? Asking smoking customers to smoke outside is definitely rude and this would affect business." Officials said that new anti-smoking laws would be improved and amended during the enforcement period according to citizen recommendations.
"Restaurants with enough space and ambiance could put their smoking area into a separate room. The ideal of creating a comfortable smoke-free dining environment for customers is not hard to fulfill," a responsible official said.
More than 60,000 taxi drivers in Beijing have been informed of the smoking ban. Today most taxis have a "No Smoking" sign posted on their dashboards. Since October 1 last year, any taxi driver smoking in the car will be fined 100-200 yuan if a passenger lodges a complaint.
Beijing has made great efforts to fulfill its promise of a smoke-free Olympics. Olympic contracted restaurants, Olympic facilities and restaurants in the Olympic Village have already put into force a ban on smoking.
(China.org.cn by Dong Chen, May 5, 2008)