Beijing will ban smoking in most public places beginning in May.

The city, host of the summer Olympics in August, had already barred smoking in public venues such as schools, sports arenas and movie theatres in 1996. The ban will now be extended to restaurants, bars, internet cafes, hotels, offices, holiday resorts and all indoor medical facilities, the China Daily said.
In addition to banning tobacco smoking in the public areas of hotels, the regulations require hotels to provide rooms for non-smokers, though the ratio of smoking rooms to non-smoking rooms is still being discussed, according to Cui Xiaobo, a tobacco control expert who helped draft the new regulations.
Institutions that fail to comply face immediate fines of up to 5,000 (USD 713); however, it has not yet been decided how to deal with smokers breaking the new rule.
More than 150 Chinese cities have already imposed restrictions on tobacco smoking, but Beijing will be the first to ban smoking in all restaurants and offices. (pi)