I posted a picture a few days ago of a notice that my dorm put up informing us that smoking indoors will be ban on March 1, 2017. A short three days after the ban came into effect I found myself at Ellen's Bar not believing that a smoking ban was ever implemented. All tables still had ashtrays and many of those ashtrays were very recently used. Ellen's also continued to advertise and serve hookah as if there wasn't a ban on indoor smoking. Ellen's actually seemed more smokey than usual, perhaps people were trying to stick it to the man by smoking inside. In data provided by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government by 4pm on March 1st they received 295 indoor smoking complaints, a small amount compared to the 24,152,700 people who live in Shanghai of which 8.5% (2,052,980) smoke in public and 23.3% (5,386,052) smoked overall. Furthermore, the maximum punishment for individuals is a still relatively small 200RMB (28.97USD) ticket. For reference, one bag of coffee is about 60RMB at Carrefor. Restaurants face a much higher potential fine for permitting customers to violate the ban, 20,000RMB (2897.28USD). Perhaps Ellen's gets a pass because it is a bar, not a restaurant, but I am not sure how you would make that distinction because Ellen's, like a restaurant, serves food and doesn't check IDs. Interestingly, a report by the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission stated that 78% of the 34,400 survey respondents knew of the indoor smoking ban and 95% of those respondents supported it. These numbers might be inflated because the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission is a government entity so respondents might not have been willing to state their disagreement with the government's policies to the government. I will continue to monitor the smoking ban though it seems like indoor smoking will continue to be China legal.
2 Comments
Dad
3/6/2017 11:38:45 pm
Those are interesting statitstics. There almost as many smokers in Shanghai as LA and Chicago's total populations. Tobacco must be a huge industry in China. I assume American cigarettes are too expensive for most people.
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Jared Paul Miller
3/8/2017 04:12:24 pm
Yes, most people seem to smoke various brands of Chinese cigarettes. You can get American cigarettes here though.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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