Zee Media Bureau
Beijing: Starting from today, public smoking in China's capital, Beijing is banned after the introduction of a new law.
In accordance with the new rules, Beijing will ban smoking in restaurants, offices and on public transport from today.
Under the law rolled out, anyone in Beijing who violates the bans, which include smoking near schools and hospitals, must pay $32.25. The current fine, seldom enforced, is just $1.60.
Anyone who breaks the law three times will be named and shamed on a government website. And businesses can be fined up to 10,000 yuan ($1,600) for failing to stamp out smoking on their premises.
The government will also no longer allow cigarettes to be sold to shops within 100m of primary schools and kindergartens, according to state media.
China has more than 300 million smokers, and more than 1 million people die each year due to smoking-related diseases, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
The ban is the country's toughest to date, as it prohibits smoking in all the city's indoor public places, workplaces, and on public transportation.
