Results tagged “smoking”

Yao Ming, already do-gooder around town and anti-sharks fin activist, is now tackling another problem: smoking. The basketball superstar will now be acting as spokesperson for a new nationwide anti-smoking drive. He'll be delivering public service announcements to discourage people from lighting up and he'll be preaching the no smoke gospel with folk music singer Peng Liyuan, wife of China vice-president Xi Jinping and recent star of the 60th Anniversary gala.

Future karaoke bars could be a drag for city's smokers

Who would've thought that the most populous city of a nation that contains one-third of the world’s smokers would have people proposing public area smoking bans so sweeping it even makes us gag? Yet another advocate has come out of the woodwork to join the growing call for a comprehensive smoking ban in Shanghai’s restaurants, pubs... and even individual rooms in karaoke bars.

Tell Shanghai lawmakers what you think about smoking bans


You know our opinion on the smoking bans that the Shanghai government is thinking about putting into place (and if you don't, it's basically this: Ban it! We love going home not reeking of ciggs and no, we don't particularly care that forcing smokers to suck on their deathsticks outdoors inconveniences them), but you now get to state your own, and not just in our comments section! Shanghai lawmakers will be holding a hearing on September 21 to mull over the opinions of residents before they place the final touches on the legislation. Only twenty city residents will be allowed to attend the hearing, but expats are welcome to apply for a seat. Applications will be accepted til next Tuesday - either call 6358-6499 or log onto either www.spcsc.sh.cn or www.eastday.com and give them a piece of your mind. Source: Shanghai Daily

Individual Shanghai smokers to start getting fined

Giving its admittedly lame smoking law some more teeth, city legislators have served up a new draft legislation called the "Shanghai public tobacco control law" that would actually begin fining individuals for taking drags in prohibited locations.

Electronic cigarettes not a healthy alternative to real deal

Those of you smokers hoping to quit healthily using those newfangled electronic cigarettes coming out of China as a crutch... Sorry - turns out that they're just as bad as the real thing, just in a different way.

Shanghai Expo 2010 quits smoking

Old habits die hard, but when Shanghai says "No" to smoking, it ain't playin'. Organizers of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 have returned a $29.3 million sponsorship from Shanghai Tobacco after they felt it clashed with the Expo's "living healthier" image.

Today's Links: Solar panels, smoking kills and some good law advice

  • What do you notice in this view of Kunming? [James Fallows] "Every roof as far as you can see has solar-thermal panels for hot water heating. More to come shortly on China's general environmental/climate situation, but I think this vista is different from that in many US cities — among other details you might notice, in the prevalence of the panels."
  • Smoking kills - but few aware [People's Daily Online] "One-third of doctors in the country do not know smoking causes coronary heart disease, and nearly four in five do not know passive smoking can cause sudden infant death syndrome, a report revealed yesterday. Also, three in five smokers do not know that smoking causes heart disease, and four in five do not know it could lead to a stroke, the national tobacco control office of the Ministry of Health said in the report."
  • 'Oldest pottery' found in China [BBC News] "Examples of pottery found in a cave at Yuchanyan in China's Hunan province may be the oldest known to science. By determining the fraction of a type, or isotope, of carbon in bone fragments and charcoal, the specimens were found to be 17,500 to 18,300 years old."

Hongqiao airport gets smoking ban off the runway

The anti-smoking campaigns have begun! Well... at least they've begun in Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, which just enacted a new smoking ban in all restaurants, toilets, offices and other public spaces inside the terminals. The enforcement is pretty stringent too - any business contaminated with evidence of cigarette smoking, such as the smell of smoke or wayward butts, will be fined upwards of 1000RMB. Now the only place to take a drag will be one of the five specially ventilated smoking rooms after the security check-in. Apparently, you're still allowed to puff away at the Pudong International Airport... for now. Source: Shanghai Daily

Shanghai anti-smoking laws on the horizon

We thought we'd have another two years before the smoking laws came into effect, but it now looks like Shanghai's ready to ban cigarettes from public places - indoor venues, public transport and work areas - by January 2010. They're even discussing a penalty this time around! Officials say the law will help make the Expo smoke-free when it starts five months after... and since it's attached to the Expo, you can bet people will be enforcing this with maybe slightly more gusto than previous attempts to wipe out the cancer sticks. Still... it IS China. What will officials use as the go to way of establishing guanxi after? Lollipops? Source: Shanghai Daily

China pleads with doctors to quit smoking

China's Health Minister, Chen Zhu, has cautioned medical workers to quit smoking, in order to “set a good example for their patients and others who look up to them,” according to China Daily. About 320 million people are smokers right now, and growing rates of lung cancer and emphysema have become a major health concern. But without laws, taxes and other regulations in place, we can't help but think Mr. Chen won't have much luck seeing an end to smoking doctors. After all, it's not like they haven't been trying to get them to quit for years already.

Shanghai banning smoking from all indoor areas by 2011

Sorry, Shanghai smokers! The ban on smoking in public venues has now been extended to all indoor workplaces in an attempt to clear the city's air of cigarette smoke by 2011. By indoor workplaces, they mean "all places with ceilings and at least three walls." So basically... everywhere.

Guess some kids get started on the ciggies a lot earlier than others. A lot earlier. Source: ZhongNanHai Blog

Visitors to the Life Art Center, also known as that place on Maoming Lu with lots of bad art and Southern Barbarian, may have noticed something a little out of the ordinary lately: Shanghai's first head shop (that we know of at least).

Whilst smoking bans in restaurants and bars seem to be spreading throughout the rest of the world, Shanghai is having second thoughts.

As part of the preparations for the Shanghai World Expo, the municipal government has marked the 600 day countdown by publishing a report on "uncivilized behavior" among locals. The report is based on an online survey in which over 5,000 Shanghai citizens were polled on what kind of behavior they consider annoying or rude.

In a move to help realize Beijing's ideal of a non-smoking Olympics, Shanghai has made an effort to curb its inhabitants' unhealthy habits — smoking in cafés and restaurants associated with the Games will now be prohibited. Hotels will be required to offer non-smoking floors and rooms, as well as cafeterias. Smoking in taxis will not be permitted for either customers or drivers. According to the China News Agency's Shanghai bureau another, smoking in hospitals will now also be prohibited (you mean it wasn't before?).

Caijing Magazine shares some startling statistics on cancer in China, where smoking, poor diet, water pollution and environmental problems have caused the nation's cancer death rate to rise 80 percent in the past 30 years. The statistics come from an exhaustive survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology. According to the survey, cancer is now accountable for 25 percent of all urban deaths and 21 percent of all rural deaths. Although the rising cancer death rate has long been attributed to an aging population, this recent survey still found that the nation's lung cancer death rate rose 261 percent after adjusting statistics for age.

This video clip from MSNBC has one shocking statistic — China has one third of the world's smokers. That's 350 million, more than the population of the United States. This also comes as news to us: that Beijing is going to ban indoor smoking from May, ahead of the Olympics. Whether this will work remains to be seen. One restaurant chain that has enforced the smoking ban ahead of schedule is already complaining that it is losing business and that customers have deserted it in droves.

We want some of whatever this guy is smoking:

News tidbits from the public transportation world:

Netizen "fyliumin" has sent in the following vid to Youku.com with the following comment:

Today is World No Tobacco Day, and according to a joint study done by Shanghai city and Fudan University public health researchers found that 82.8% of Shanghai people in a survey said they supported the idea of smoking/non-smoking sections in restaurants, while around 70% of restaurant managers said they were hoping to either completely ban smoking or else try sections. However, in reality only 6.1% of restaurants have banned smoking, and only 24.2% of restaurants have non-smoking sections.

Zhang Yue (张跃) of Luoyang is the kind of guy that we want around, all the time. Why? Because Zhang is known for plucking cigarettes out of people's mouths right as they are about to light up. The anti-smoking crusader has taken his show on the road to the tune of over 200 cities in China, and was recently spotted on Nanjing Lu, snubbing out eleven cigarettes in the space of half an hour. Normally, you don't do things like that -- especially to hard-core smokers -- but perhaps Zhang's altruistic motives, supplemented by his anti-smoking informational pamphlets, manage to convince where other methods fail. You can read reports about Zhang's exploits in Chengdu and Foshan as well (reports in Chinese). Thursday, May 31 is World No Tobacco Day.



  • "Xupu Bridge's 240 suspension cables are to have a large-scale renovation to make the bridge safer and more beautiful prior to the opening of World Expo 2010, the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau has said." If no Expo, safety not an issue.




  • "The list of potentially deadly products reaching the United States from China continued to grow Thursday, as an importer recalled frozen fish that may be tainted with a lethal toxin ..." Good thing we don't eat Chinese exports here in Shanghai!




  • "Around the lake, several specific zones will be built such as one for vegetable picking, a rare vegetable exhibition room, a vegetable and fruit bar and children's world, the report said." We have marked our calendars.




  • "But we don’t see any compelling parallels of doom at this time. China’s yuan is not in deflationary territory, like the dollar was in the late ‘90s, which helped cause the tech boom & bust."




  • "Shanghai's food and drug watchdog has ordered a city-wide recall of all drugs made by three local companies who are not registered drug makers, the Labor Daily reported today."




  • "A Taiwanese blogger named Sen Lin (森林) has written a tongue-in-cheek defence of Shijingshan Amusement Park. The piece is facetious, but sounds exactly like ostensibly serious arguments you hear in China every day."




  • "A program will train restaurant operators how to set up no-smoking areas for the sake of people's health, the Shanghai Association on Smoking Control said yesterday." We want a Shanghai Association on Smoking Control T-shirt.




  • "The article then trots out the bromide that 'China may look innovative...but observers say it's got a long way to go.' It then quotes (misquotes?) Andy Rothman at CLSA-Asia Pacific Markets, as saying 'there isn’t a single innovative Chinese company.”




  • "The Yunnan provincial government has announced that there will be 'absolutely' no dams built and no mines opened in the Three Parallel Rivers area, one of the World Natural Heritage sites listed by the UNESCO."




  • "Coca Cola ... has launched a program to give 100,000 sets of playing cards with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria prevention knowledge to Chinese migrant workers. The poker cards will be handed out at railway stations and construction sites..." Smart cards.


  • For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

    Photo by Swiss James found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.



  • "Yuan, who had been a peasant in the late 1960s, noted it is 'uncivilized' to affix derogative connotations to peasant, which for him usually means guilelessness, diligence, and the down-to-earth spirit." They also link to a song called "Peasant."




  • "Only authorized dramas are allowed on Chinese prime-time television, customs inspectors are seizing books on Mao Zedong at China's borders and newspapers are prohibited from running stories on the Communist Party's misdeeds." Has anyone here had a book confiscated at the border?




  • "With a nod to history, Chinese politicians have drawn up a list of 'four pests' to be eradicated before the 2008 Olympic Games - smoking, spitting, queue-jumping and cursing."




  • "Saturday sees Shanghai joining a jolly green club that includes member cities around the world. The city's first St Patrick's Day Parade gets underway at noon at the Xintiandi lakeside and is set to demonstrate the fun-loving nature of the Irish and their ever-increasing presence here in Shanghai."




  • "The Internet communication capacity between China and the United States will be enhanced 60 times the present level once a new Sino-US undersea cable is built by the end of next year." We'll be connected with Oregon.




  • "Xinhua reports that 11 suspects wanted for embezzlement were extradited from overseas last year and 77.2 million yuan (about 9.9 million U.S. dollars) was retrieved, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate."




  • "China’s coalmine death rate per million tons is some 50-fold higher than the rates in many developed countries, sending alarming signals to the state work safety body."




  • "A group of Shanghai residents have appealed to the German Chancellor to stop the extension of the Transrapid line near their homes. While some are angry at being evicted to make way for the track, others fear increased noise, magnetic radiation and possible accidents."




  • "Presenting a work report to the annual session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), Xiao, who is president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said a total of 825 government officials ranking above county level were sentenced in 2006."




  • "After a row with developers, this family's home has been left perched 12m (40ft) up on its own concrete island." Great photo! Thanks, Timothy!




  • Video of two Shanghai dogs jumping.




  • Johnnie Walker loooooooves China.


  • For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

    Photo by 2 dogs found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.



  • "According to a report from Russell Reynolds Associates based on Shanghai government statistics, 144 foreign companies now have their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, 48 of which established operations there only in the last year."




  • "Besides receiving a verbal reminder of the violation, jaywalkers and cyclists will be fined between five yuan to 50 yuan, depending on their behavior and attitude."




  • "If you thought the Shanghai index's 8.8% drop in late February was bad, wait until a bunch of rickety Chinese companies collapse."




  • "This Sunday, Yang checks in and checks out a number of Shanghai boutique hotels. How do we know this? We're the suckers who subscribe to Times Select."




  • "The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), China’s environment watchdog, will spend 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) to set up new pollution statistics, monitoring and accountability systems within 18 months."




  • "[T]he State Council Informatization Office, Information Office of the State Council and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Internet Network Information Center has announced that all .CN domains can now be purchased for only one yuan."




  • "Web search leader Google and its top rival in China Baidu.com are racing to build out their online library services as they battle for a slice of the world's second-largest Internet market."




  • "Smoking harms people's health, but restraining smoking threatens social stability," said Zhang Baozhen, deputy chief of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. "Smokers rioted when the former Soviet Union collapsed because they could not get any cigarettes. ... The principle applies in China as well."




  • "Led by industry group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the corporations, including EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music, and Universal Music, are suing Yahoo! China for an estimated 5.5 million yuan in damages."




  • "The Humane Society of the United States/Humane Society International said in a statement that a vaccination campaign would be a better way to control rabies."




  • "China ended almost 30 years of favourable treatment for foreign companies on Thursday with the introduction of a measure to equalise corporate tax rates paid by local and overseas enterprises."




  • "There are countless stories out there (including in this blog) of foreign companies sending money off to China for product that never comes. This article is essentially the reverse: Chinese companies shipping product overseas and then never getting paid."




  • "Videos already uploaded include pilgrims, rap songs, statements from monks, rants from young Tibetan exiles in the United States, and words from ama-la (grandmas). Looks like the revolution(s) will be televised after all."




  • "Taiwan may rejoin China peacefully within 20 years"




  • "An interesting survey just out from McKinsey on how executives in Asia perceive the China market. I'm amazed that only 30 per cent of the respondents' companies have operations in China."




  • "Imagine a world where Germany denied the Holocaust, the United States denied the slaughter of Native Americans and Europe denied organizing its immensely profitable and centuries-long trans-Atlantic trade in African slaves."




  • "Regulators have ordered Chinese websites to limit the use of 'virtual money' after concerns that the online credits might be used for money laundering or illicit trade."




  • "The cancer rate among Shanghai's women almost doubled in the past 20 years and is the highest in the nation, health officials said yesterday."


  • For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

    Photo by shanghaidragonrider found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    Imagine Superman, Monkey King, time travel, martial arts and state-of-the-art technology all rolled into one. Sorry for that mental image, but this is what Mohuan Shouji (魔幻手机 or "Magic Cellphone") promises when it hits the small screen in November. This "modern" fantasy television drama series brings up a concept that human beings can actually be transported through SMS (we have heard rumors that Shanghai officials and mobile phone service providers are actually planning on launching this functionality ... by 2010, the magical year when all of our dreams will come true).



  • "It might be time to admit that we really don't understand China. The country simply does not conform to our most basic beliefs about what makes nations grow."




  • "China needs a law to restrict a 'violent culture' in films and Internet to protect the youth from being corrupted, a Chinese lawmaker said Tuesday."




  • "And Guangdong appears to be the source of renewed waves of the H5N1 strain, which has killed or forced the destruction of hundreds of millions of birds, the team at the University of California Irvine reported."




  • "The Xinhua News Agency said 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry, had issued a notice saying that 'in 2007, local governments must not sanction the opening of new Internet bars.'"




  • "Italy's master violin makers said they are worried that the Chinese, who can turn out a violin, bow and case for $25 are now eyeing the more prestige market."




  • "The Sunday blizzard dumped up to 50mm of snow on parts of Heilongjiang in China's far north, while significant snowfall closed the airport in the city of Shenyang further south, causing 144 flight cancellations and stranding thousands, Xinhua news agency said."




  • "Based on data from the new study and from the International Energy Agency, the increase in the amount of China's greenhouse gas emissions is now greater than that of all industrialized nations put together."




  • "Warnings will be issued to smokers during the April 1 to 9 grace period, after which penalty points will be allotted under the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement."




  • "Beijing taxi drivers should stop eating and sleeping in their cabs because the smells could tarnish the city's image during the 2008 Olympics."




  • "The female contingent in the Top 10 includes actresses Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Zhou Xun, and Fan Bingbing, Super Girl Li Yuchun, director-actress-blogger Xu Jinglei and Hong Kong actress Carina Lau."




  • "According to All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), Shanghai women are the happiest in China, followed by Beijing, Qingdao, Ningbo and Tianjin women."
  • "In Shanghai, where mega-developments are the norm, the small stone houses known as shikumen along Lane 248 are being lovingly restored and converted into trendy boutiques, patisseries and cafes." Taikang Lu.
  • "Two packages containing human body parts -- including a liver and part of a head -- meant for a medical research lab instead were delivered to a home."
  • "More than that, the actual location is insane. The first time I tried to get there I couldn't find it and wandered around for half an hour."
  • "Shaanghai Metro is expected to offer passengers services similar to those in airliners, the head of the Metro system said yesterday."
  • "The historic bomb, 2.6 meters in length and 0.43 meter in diameter, is waiting to be uploaded onto a container carrier at a ferry dock in the city's northern Baoshan District."
  • "The 66-seat open-topped bus has been running nine times daily since its launch, but 80 percent of seats remain empty."
  • "The collection of over 200 black and white photos is maintained by Dr Rob Linrothe, Associate Professor and Director of Art History at Skidmore College."
  • Washington Post on Chun, Guyi and Fu 1039.
  • "Average temperatures were 8.1 degrees Celsius (46.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a dramatic 2.6 degrees warmer than in previous years and the highest since records were first taken in 1873, Xinhua news agency reported." Until today.
  • For more del.icio.us links, visit the Shanghaiist Contribute page, which is updated throughout the day.

    Photo by 2 dogs found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    Shanghaiist hopes that Valentine's Day 2007 went better for you than it did for us. We had planned, after dinner and drinks, to get drunk and screw, especially after watching the above sex ed video for inspiration.

    1 2 3