Smoke free....

Beijing Tries to Clear Its Notoriously Dirty Air — of Cigarette Smoke

By DAN LEVIN

At 11:50 p.m. on Sunday, the loudspeakers in the pricey Temple bar here in the Chinese capital erupted with an announcement that set off either joy or despair, depending on the customer: Patrons had 10 more minutes until a tough new ban on smoking took effect, aimed at ending the era of tobacco fumes clinging to clothes and lungs in public spaces.

In this vast city of 20 million people, which a government survey estimated last year was home to more than four million smokers, the new ban extends to all enclosed public spaces, including offices, bars, restaurants, nightclubs, airports and public transport vehicles. In addition to areas outside schools and hospitals that are now declared smoke-free, some outdoor sites are off limits to smokers, too. Thinking of lighting up at the Forbidden City or on the Great Wall? Then be prepared for a fine of up to 200 renminbi, or $32. The owners of public spaces face penalties of up to 10,000 renminbi for permitting smoking or for failing to post signs and other information about the ban, including a phone number to report violators.

Even as the ban was being cheered in the state news media as a necessary move that would protect the public from dangerous secondhand smoke, many Beijing residents remained skeptical that the law would actually be enforced, as the municipal government has banned smoking twice before, in 1996 and before the 2008 Olympic Games. In both cases, the bans were widely ignored, and smoke continued to waft through hotel lobbies, public bathrooms and gym locker rooms.

City officials vow that this time will be different. In the coming days, thousands of “health police officers” trained by the Beijing Health Inspection and Supervision Bureau will begin supervising the implementation of the latest ban, said an official at the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning who would give only his last name, Ma.

“We are not depriving smokers of the right to smoke,” the official said by telephone, explaining that the ban pertains only to certain areas. “I’m confident that it will be carried out smoothly and guide people to quit smoking.”

Smoking in China is something of a national pastime, especially among men. Plates of stacked cigarettes routinely adorn wedding banquet tables, and cartons of expensive cigarette brands have long been given as presents or to curry favor with officials. According to the World Health Organization, China has 301 million smokers, almost a third of the world’s total. Nearly 53 percent of men and 2.4 percent of women smoke regularly, contributing to a million deaths annually from heart disease, cancer and other ailments, the W.H.O. says, while secondhand smoke causes around 100,000 deaths a year.

In Beijing alone, smokers consume an average of 14.6 million cigarettes a day, according to a study conducted last year by the Beijing Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, which found that secondhand smoke was probably inhaled by 90 percent of people who went to bars and clubs, 65 percent of diners in restaurants and 40 percent of people in their own homes.

In addition, a Chinese state-run monopoly manufactures a third of the world’s cigarettes, accounting for a significant portion of state revenue.

“Beijing has now set the bar very high,” Bernhard Schwartländer, the W.H.O. representative in China, said in a statement. “We now look forward to other cities around China, and the world, following Beijing’s excellent example.”

Despite the latest ban, which also prohibits tobacco advertising in the Beijing media, Suan Weiqing, a waitress at a dumpling restaurant, said it would be very difficult to stop diners from smoking.

“You can’t tell them they’re not allowed to smoke,” she said. “We’re only a small restaurant, and we can’t offend our customers.”

With a cigarette in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other, Zhang Jiawei, a man in his 50s who has smoked cigarettes for over 30 years, said he supported the ban for health reasons and that he planned to smoke less because of it.

Seated across from him outside a restaurant, his friend Gao Jianjun felt otherwise. “Cigarettes are a good thing,” he said. “I feel sick when I don’t smoke.”

Faced with the ban’s harsher fines and more widespread restrictions, many Beijing smokers have reacted with alarm, though their nonsmoking colleagues are reveling in the prospect of lungs ruined only by the city’s notoriously toxic air pollution.

One literature teacher at a Beijing public high school recalled a faculty meeting last week during which the administration reviewed the rules for the next year, including the new regulation forbidding smoking in the vicinity of the school. “A lot of the other teachers asked, ‘What are we going to do, because taking smoking breaks is so important to us?’ ” said the teacher, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak publicly.

Privately, however, the teacher was thrilled with the new ban. “Cigarettes are the devil’s instrument,” she said. “I wish they were banned from every Beijing street.”

If there is one sector that stands to lose from an enforced smoking ban, it is the city’s nightclubs, where smoking while drinking is not only common but also extremely lucrative. In many clubs, the cost of a private table can start around 6,000 renminbi, not including alcohol. As a result, the prospect of wealthy customers staying home to engage in their favorite vices is a major concern.

Many clubs, however, have decided to ignore the ban, betting that the government will not really enforce it. “If we don’t let people smoke, they’ll stop coming,” said one club employee, who refused to be identified, to avoid scrutiny from the authorities. Like many nocturnal establishments, the employee’s workplace has strong political connections to the district government, greased by another employee whose job “is just to drink with officials.”

The employee said those officials were expected to warn the nightclub before any inspections, so there would be ample time to extinguish cigarettes and clear away the ashtrays.

Only if the authorities are serious about the smoke ban will Beijing’s night life centers quit the habit, said the employee. “We’ll just wait until the government makes an example of some club and hope it’s not ours.”