For smoking in offices or rooms of a Karaoke TV entertainment center, one could face a fine of 50 yuan, the cost of buying four to five packs of mid-range cigarettes in China. Proprietors or operators of these locations would also be fined from 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan for failing to monitor smokers.
The nation' s toughest smoking ban has been enacted by the Guangzhou City authority. Under the Guangzhou Smoking Control Regulation, put into effect on Sept. 1, smoking is strictly banned in the city' s 12 categories of public locations including offices, conference rooms, halls and elevators, while in six other kinds of places such as airports, shopping centers and restaurants with over 75 seats, smoking is to be allowed only in designated areas.
Indivinduals who break the reguation will be fined 50 yuan (about 7.35 U.S.dollars) and businesses not meeting their obligations will be fined up to 30,000 yuan.
Beijing' s commitment of hosting a "No-smoking Olympics" has inspired Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong Province, to commit itself to a no-smoking promise during the 16th Asian Games which will open on Nov. 12.
But with 2.3 million, or 22.8 percent of its 10 million population being smokers, the host city has found this is not an easy task. "Smokers in Guangzhou are such a massive group. We hope to use the strictest smoking-control bans to make local residents smoke less or even give up cigarettes once and for all," said Yao Rongbin, president of the Smoking-control Association of Guangzhou.
