Beijing Drops Restaurants in Smoking Ban

Posted on April 14, 2008 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
April 14, 2008

Beijing has backtracked on a proposed public smoking ban ahead of this summer's Olympics, with a city official saying Monday that restaurants will no longer be included due to concerns it would hurt their business.

Lighting up in restaurants will be allowed after the citywide ban goes into effect May 1 as long as they have separate smoking and nonsmoking areas, said Zhang Peili, an official with Beijing's municipal government supervising the ban.

Restaurants that do not comply will be fined $714, Zhang said, though she added that implementing the regulation will be ''extremely difficult.''

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	This article is filed under the categories of Beijing 2008 , Doing business in China , News Tags: beijing 2008 · doing business in china · health · Olympics