Visitors fume over fake tobacco

Tourists have complained that the souvenir "Beijing" brand cigarettes they have been buying in the Dashilan area's tourist shops are fake.

The brand was made by Beijing Cigarette Factory (BCF), but production of the cigarettes ceased in 2009, an employee of the company said.

Nevertheless, packets of Beijing cigarettes are openly on sale in many stores in Dashilan, in Xicheng district.

The cigarettes must be fake, said the anonymous BCF employee, as they stopped production in 2009 to focus on the Zhongnanhai brand.

"After over four years since the last production, I doubt if they are our products," she said.

There is little BCF can do if they find cigarette packs marked with their brand and factory name on sale, she said.

On Tuesday, there were around seven stores selling these fake cigarettes alongside other Beijing souvenirs like traditional snacks and accessories.

The cigarette packs branded as "Beijing" also named BCF as the manufacturer. They were priced at 10 to 23 yuan ($1.6-3.6) per pack.

An employee surnamed Zhang, from Daoxiangcun, a popular Beijing traditional snack store, said these products are the oldest local brand of cigarettes available in Beijing, and many tourists buy them to take back home as a gift.

"Unlike other local brands such as Zhongnanhai, this type of cigarette can only be found here," she said.

Zhang said that the cigarettes were still being produced, but she was unsure when those on sale were produced.

"All the cigarettes are real products," she said, an opinion echoed by the staff at the other tourist shops in the area.

An anonymous employee from Xicheng District Tobacco Monopoly Administration said they had received several complaints from tourists who had called their hotline.

"The Dashilan area is difficult to manage, because of its mobile population. We'll investigate, and the store owners will be prosecuted and fined if the case is confirmed," she said.

"Based on previous cases, the source of the cigarettes might be from outside the city," she said.

She would not comment on action to be taken against those who were producing the fake cigarettes.

In 2012, Xicheng district prosecutors convicted five people of transporting and selling fake tobacco and alcohol products, the Beijing Evening News reported in April 2012.

It is difficult to crack down on such crimes, as the sources of production are difficult to find, the report said.