First smoke-free Chinese restaurant opens in Beijing
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From Beijing Today:
couple of interesting bits: note they say that business dropped 10% to 20% initially (believable) and also that 90% of all western restaurants in Beijing ban smoking (???? where did they get that ????)
[url=http://bjtoday.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=26972295]First smoke-free Chinese restaurant opens[/url]
Quote:(Jan 11 2008)
By Li Fenghua
A Meizhou Dongpo branch at Liulitun will be the city’s first Chinese restaurant to prohibit smoking – a prohibition already enacted by most of the city’s West restaurants.
Guo Xiaodong, the chain’s general manager, said that change was made in preparation for the Olympic Games, whose organizers have called for creation of a smokefree environment.
Each dining table has a small bulletin noting that smoking is forbidden, and there are posters with the message tacked to the walls.
When the customers enter the restaurant, attendants immediately inform them it is smoke free. Most customers finish their cigarette outside before entering, and only a few leave outright at the news, Guo said.
He said he expects the restaurant to make up for its loss of smokers with an in-flow of concerned, pregnant women.
Wang Ying, a diner at the restaurant, said she was pleased with the decision.
“I feel violated when I dine in a smoking restaurant since I am forced to take in the cigarette smoke. I hope more and more non-smoking restaurants apear in Beijing; I think it is an international trend,” she said.Diner and smoker Li Jianguo said he can accept the restaurant’s non-smoking act, and that it doesn’t require that much control for a smoker to refrainrom lighting up during his meal. It is unfair to non-smokers for smoking to be allowed in restaurants, he said.
The volume of business dropped 10 to 20 percent during the first two months, but it has made up the slack with an inflow of pregnant women and non-smokers.
“We will conver more branches to be smoke free if the Liulitun location proves successful,” Guo saidAccording to the China Center for Disease Control, 90 percent of the city’s Western restaurants prohibit smoking.The mid-sized restaurant is located near Beijing Hospital of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Chaoyang District.
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Re: First smoke-free Chinese restaurant opens in Beijing
more on smoking bans:
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080122/hl_afp/oly2008chinahealthlifestyletobacco_080122182628]Beijing to extend smoking ban ahead of Olympics[/url]
BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing is about to extend a ban on smoking in public places ahead of the Olympic Games despite the Chinese capital's image as a paradise for smokers who have faced few restrictions on where they can light up.
According to a draft bill published on a municipal legal affairs website, the majority of public places, such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, stations, libraries and museums will have to be non-smoking.
Hotels will also have to reserve at least 70 percent of their rooms for non-smokers.
Smokers who ignore the ban will face a fine of 50 yuan (6.9 dollars, 4.7 euros) while those who allow them on their premises will have to cough up between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan, according to the bill.
Beijing had already taken some tentative measures to establish non-smoking areas in 1996 without much success, but the approach of the August Games provided the impetus for the new decision, Chinese media said.
The places that will accommodate athletes and officials during the Beijing Games will all be non-smoking.
China has about 350 million smokers, or about a quarter of its population, and accounts for a third of the world's smokers, according to official statistics.
About a million people die of smoking-related diseases each year in China. Since October, Beijing taxi drivers have in theory been banned from smoking in their vehicles under penalty of a fine of between 100 and 200 yuan.
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Re: First smoke-free Chinese restaurant opens in Beijing
From People's Daily, online:
[url=http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90779/90867/6344520.html]Beijing will expand non-smoking policy for Olympic Games[/url]
Quote:There are less than 200 days left before the "smoke-free Beijing Olympics" open. A Beijing official recently announced that “the provisions to ban smoking in public places in Beijing (Draft to Be Approved)" will go into effect in Beijing office spaces, restaurants, and hotels.
The new smoking ban will affect at least 4 million smokers in Beijing. In China, there are approximately 350 million smokers; and more than 100,000 people die each year from second hand smoke.
Compared with the smoking ban introduced in 1996, this new ban is more stringent and based on solicited public views. The new provisions expand the scope of non-smoking, public areas. The first provision bans smoking inside and outside of gyms, health clubs, social units, and open public places. And for the first time, a smoking ban has been placed inside restaurants, hotels, hostels, training centers, resorts and other public places.
Meanwhile, restaurants and hotels will set up clearly-marked and well-ventilated indoor smoking areas or smoking rooms. At least 70% of rooms will be smoke-free.
Based on the new requirements, smoking will be banned in offices, meeting places, cafeterias, bathrooms, hallways, and elevators in Beijing authorities, organizations, enterprises and institutions.
The government-approved prohibition of smoking in public places is expected to begin after February of this year. The regulations are considered to be an effective support for the "Smoke-free Olympics;" and in the future to become a new starting point for tobacco control legislation in Beijing and China's public places.
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Re: First smoke-free Chinese restaurant opens in Beijing
interesting take on the same restaurant ...
[url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-01/18/content_6404823.htm]Empty tables at city's first no-smoking restaurant[/url]
Quote:"For the past three months, our occupancy rate has dropped to about 80 percent of that enjoyed by other restaurants across the street," Manager Li Yanmei told China Daily last week.
The ban has even led to some embarrassing violations.
"Guests in the VIPs rooms sometime lock our waitresses out so they can sneak in a quick puff," Guo said. "When the waitresses finally get in, the rooms stink of nicotine."
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