BEIJING — Li Zhigang inhaled deeply from a cigarette while sitting on his haunches near the Beijing Railway Station before deciding there was no way that tighter smoking regulations would change where or when he'd grab a smoke.
Li, 30, a real estate salesman, said he began smoking several years ago because he saw virtually all the people around him lighting up. He said he could support tighter rules, at least in theory, but could not see himself changing his smoking habits.
"I'm not that addicted, but it's also not so easy to stop," Li said. "The only answer would be if they stopped making cigarettes completely."
As part of a bid to create a "smoke-free Olympics," new regulations effective Thursday in Beijing require separate smoking and nonsmoking areas in bars, restaurants, hotels, parks, Internet cafes and airport lounges. There's an outright ban in places such as offices, hospitals, sports stadiums, museums and universities.
The results will probably be most obvious at Olympic sites as the Chinese government, with the Beijing Games beginning Aug. 8, goes into overdrive to curb littering, spitting, walking around without a shirt and cutting in line, a bid to project a favorable image to the world.
The tighter rules, which apply only to Beijing and a few other cities, replace less stringent, rarely enforced, measures in place since 1995. The government is counting on newfound cooperation from smokers as well as enforcement by way of 100,000 voluntary monitors and fines of up to $700 for companies that don't comply.
In 2009, cigarette packs are supposed to have health warnings cover at least one-third of their surface.
With about 350 million smokers, China is the world's largest producer and consumer of cigarettes and has a deeply entrenched smoking culture.
Outside the Yuyang Hotel in central Beijing, dozens of migrant workers offered one another cigarettes on their lunch break from their construction jobs Thursday as, nearby, waiting taxi drivers gossiped in a cloud of smoke near a businessman who stopped at the crosswalk to light up between conversations on his cellphone.
At the Dongzhimen Bus Station, Zhang Qinglin sat in his car smoking. He smokes 10 relatively expensive "Zhonghua" cigarettes a day as a way to break up the monotony of long drives or to enjoy a moment with friends. His wife and his 18-year old son don't like second-hand smoke, so he avoids bothering them at home.
