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Starting this week, smoking in public places in Shanghai carries a fine of between £5 and £20. That may not sound too outlandish when you consider that smoking is banned in public places in many developed countries.
But you have to remember smoking is a national pastime here. A third of the world’s smokers live in China. You can buy a packet of 20 Double Happiness cigarettes for just 5 yuan, or about 50 pence. Business deals are lost over the refusal of a cigarette.
The right to be able to smoke in bars, schools, hospitals, supermarkets, public lavatories and pretty much anywhere else they want to is something Chinese people have held dear. I once watched a man in a restaurant smoke a cigarette at the same time he ate his lunch, cigarette in one hand, chopsticks in the other.
Smokers know no bounds... until now
While I’m not denying cigarettes are harmful, I hate to think of Shanghai becoming like the safe, nanny state we have in Britain. The fact you can speed down the motorway sharing a cigarette with the taxi driver as he chats on his mobile, neither of you wearing seatbelts is liberating, if not life-prolonging. If the pace of change continues, there are so many things I will miss.
Shanghai won’t be the same when:
- Shanghai girls stop wearing high heels (I once saw high heels worn while dragon boat racing)
- Everyone wears helmets on bikes and seat belts in cars
- You don’t see people wearing pyjamas in the street
- You don’t hear at least one person clear their throat, sinuses and lungs every day
- You can’t ride your scooter down the pavement
- People stand aside to let other people out of lifts
source: telegraph.co.uk