Public satisfaction with smoking control efforts in Beijing has doubled since a city-wide smoking ban came into place last year, according to survey results released on Friday.
The survey conducted by nonprofit organization the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control shows that 84 percent of people interviewed said they were satisfied with tobacco control efforts, compared to 42 percent in April last year.
The ban on smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces and public transportation, the strictest in China, came into force on June 1, 2015.
Xu Guihua, a senior advisor with the association, said at a press conference that it polled 600 people and performed undercover inspections in 500 public places, including hotels, restaurants, hospitals, Internet and wine bars, bus stops and schools before and after the ban last April and this May, to find out how the regulations were being implemented.
It found 94.67 percent of hotels posted no-smoking signs as required, compared with 43.13 percent last year. Smokers were only spotted at 14.29 percent of the inspected Internet and wine bars, in contrast to 90 percent last year. Seventy-three percent of the restaurants posted tip-off phone numbers this year, up from zero last year, Xu said.
Fines under the ban have totaled more than one million yuan (150,000 U.S. dollars), the municipal health authorities said on Thursday.
Mao Qun'an, an official with the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said the figures show the smoking ban has been well implemented over the past year, with the smoke-free environment greatly improved in the city.
"We should congratulate ourselves on Beijing's achievement in tobacco control, which has also provided references for the national tobacco control legislation," he said.
According to the 2016 national legislation plan released in mid-March by the State Council, China's cabinet, state-level smoking control regulation is due to be in place by the end of this year.
