Survey: Smoking Ban Kicks Off, Beijingers Hesitant to Report Others

Today's the day: Monday is the first day for the new city-wide smoking ban to go into effect, which bans indoor smoking completely, although it appears six guys on the fourth floor of our building managed to miss the entire propaganda campaign.

In addition to indoor areas (anywhere with a roof), a few outdoor areas will also be non-smoking, such as,

– playgrounds and other youth activity facilities;

– sporting fields, such as the Worker’s Stadium;

– areas with cultural relics, such as the Forbidden City;

– designated waiting areas like lines for buses;

– temporary large-scale outdoor activity areas;

– outside maternity clinics and chlidren’s hospitals;

The smoking ban applies to the airport and train stations as well, and under the new rules, indoor designated smoking rooms, which were regarded previously as lawful smoking areas, will be either closed or moved to the outside.

Under the new regulations, venues that do not address smoking will be slapped with fines up to RMB 10,000, while smokers themselves will be subject to fines up to RMB 200.

While the city has pledged enforcement and regular checks, they are also encouraging social media users to join in a grassroots attempt to stamp out indoor smoking. You can report violations via the "No Smoking Beijing" WeChat public account. Our full tutorial of reporting violations is here.

While we do hope that this all-out effort will finally work out, like what we saw with drunk driving, results from a survey released this morning on Sina.com casts tempers our optimism. While most of the survey takers (76 percent) support the smoking ban and pledged to observe the ban themselves (80 percent), only a tiny number, 27 percent, said they would report a violation and only 18 percent said that they would step up and stop someone from indoor smoking in person.

The survey is still ongoing and it’s in simple Chinese. You can participate or check out the latest result here.

Here are the results of the survey as of press time.

1.  Have you ever smoked at a non-smoking area or when you are in a line?
Yes. 29%
No. 71%.

2.  Do you support the smoking ban?
Yes. 76%
No. 16%
I don’t care. 8%

3. Will you observe the smoking ban?
Yes. 80%
No. 10%
Hard to say. 10%

4. Will you report a violation?
Yes. 27%
No. 42%
It depends. 31%

5. Will you stop someone from smoking in person?
Yes. 18%
No. 45%
It depends. 37%

From June 1 to June 3, the Beijing Health Inspection Institute is launching a campaign to put more than 1,000 inspectors on patrol throughout the city and check venues randomly. According to Beijing Daily News, first blood was drawn this morning at Haidilao Sanlitun, where two butts were found at the venue’s men’s restroom (!). If the situation does not improve by the next inspection, the venue could face a fine of up to RMB 10,000.

Photo: Sina