To reduce law enforcement obstacles, the concerned departments launched an advertising campaign that was as widespread as that of any commodity, and featured ubiquitously on subways, television and even the Internet. Meanwhile, lawmakers offered training programs to related staff in service sectors, and taught them the polite way to dissuade their guests from smoking. In addition, a temporary rule allowed some pubs to postpone enforcement of the law for two years.

A few months later, the number of pro-smoking people had dwindled. In effect, the law was saying that one could not do without eating, but one could definitely do without smoking. If one desperately wanted to smoke, he/she had to stand out on the street, faced with exhaust fumes and the blistering heat of the sun. More importantly smoking was increasingly becoming infra-dig, something frowned upon by people around.

It is reported that the Hong Kong government has already issued some 1,000 tickets, with fines between HK$200 and HK$1,500.

"It's strange that I never think of having a smoke, even in the places not banned in Hong Kong. However I won’t feel embarrassed to smoke in the United States,” says an "old heavy smoker." This is an indication of the success of the smoke-free law in Hong Kong.

"Our greatest enemy is not the tobacco industry, but complacency," said Dr. Asamoa-Baah, Deputy Director-General of WHO. “Although people all around the world have realized the deadly dangers of smoking, and various tobacco control policies have been identified in the Convention and national laws, laws in the book are not laws on the street.”

Stubbing out this unhealthy addiction is not easy for many in the populous China’s mainland. At a typical Chinese wedding ceremony, the bride will go from table to table offering each male guest a "wedding cigarette”, often an expensive brand, to be lit up as a mark of the new couple's hospitality -- a simple example of how deeply smoking is ingrained in modern-day Chinese culture.

"Controlling smoking among males is a 100 times more difficult than the AIDS prevention work I was involved with six years ago," said Jing Jun, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University, and a heavy smoker. He has tried to quit several times but always relapsed. "It tortures my mind when I am not smoking. More importantly, a smoking culture makes it difficult for smokers like me to be completely isolated from tobacco," he said.

Jing seldom buys cigarettes, since many people send him tobacco as gifts. At many social functions, offering cigarettes is considered a goodwill gesture and a conversation starter.

Fang Yuting, a family medical practitioner at Beijng United Family Hospital, said that many of its foreign patients who quit smoking before coming to China picked up the habit again. "It is difficult for my patients to find a smoke-free place to conduct business discussions," Fang said. "In particular, Chinese businessmen tend to offer cigarettes to them as a courtesy, and it is difficult to refuse."

Fang believes that having a smoke-free working and living environment is particularly important for one to quit smoking. She has compiled a list of smoke-free restaurants in Beijing, and gives it to her patients.

Xia Yang, a doctor at Beijing Shijitan Hospital, and a non-smoker, said that many of his colleagues smoke, and started to smoke when they were medical students, Xia said.

According to Xu Guihua, Deputy Director of the Chinese Association on Smoking Control, the smoking rate among young women, particularly white-collar workers, as well as adolescents, has climbed in recent years. The WHO estimates that because of the growing population and the increase in smoking among 15-24-year-olds, the total number of smokers in China rose by 30 million between 2002 and 2006. Cigarette stores are ubiquitous and the choice of brands is huge. Stores even sell candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes, perhaps to lure kids and young women into smoking. Cigarettes in China are relatively inexpensive. The cheapest ones sell for 2 yuan per pack, a fraction compared to the price of a pack in Western countries, which often levy high taxes on the tobacco industry, in some cases as much as 66 percent of the retail price.

Xu said that tobacco industry sells pro-smoking images to kids via movies, recommending it as cool, grownup and sexy. Although the government has said that it wants to make the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing smoke-free, getting just a few of the country's smokers to kick the habit will be a huge challenge. With such a large smoking population, a smoke-free China seems a long way off, but for many anti-smokers, the Olympics could be a positive catalyst for change.

"The 2008 Olympics will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in China's tobacco fight," said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization spokesman in China.

(Source: Xinhua ,crienglish.com, People's Daily)