A new national smoking ban, which extends to all enclosed public areas, has been in effect for about a week. Experts believe it is an important step forward for China in the tobacco control.

However, as of the biggest countries in producing and consuming cigarettes, there is still a long way to go for China.

Our reporter He Fei takes a closer look.

Since China's indoor smoking ban in all public places took effect on May 1st, restaurant owners have began to worry about whether their business will decline.

Chen Zhanfei is a restaurant manager. He says a third of the diners at his restaurant smoke when they dine. Now under the pressure of the new regulation, Chen says he doesn't quite know what to say when patrons ask him if smoking is strictly forbidden.

"I felt ambivalent as diners asked me whether they would be allowed to smoke before they entered the restaurant. If we gave them a negative answer, they would leave right away. Usually, I would find an out-of-the-way corner for them. By doing so, I think there would be little impact when the customer lit up a cigarette or cigar."

Chen says the restaurant's owners had to take customers' wishes into account out of fear of any decline in business. He believes it will be difficult to implement the indoor smoking ban in all restaurants.

China has the world's largest number of smokers. Experts estimate that there are more than 300-million regular smokers, and more than 700 million people are routinely exposed to harmful second-hand smoke.

38-year-old Wang is a habitual smoker. When asked about what he thinks of the current smoking ban, he says it is unrealistic at the moment because dining-out is a social occasion when people want to be at ease.

"We often have social gatherings in restaurants that include drinking and smoking. Despite the present smoking ban, I found some restaurants turn a blind eye to us when we smoke."

Commenting on the minimal effect the current ban has had during the last few days, Wang says he believes there is still a long way to go.

"I think it will take quite a long time to realize the target, because many of us smoke out of habit, and there is a huge number of smokers in China, like me. The new ban might encounter big obstacles during the start of its implementation, but we might gradually change our attitudes."

Smoking bans are nothing new in China. Since China joined the WHO's Framework Convention on tobacco control 5 years ago, local authorities have introduced the ban in public areas. Beijing was the first city to do so.

However, China also enjoys the world largest amount of revenue from tobacco taxes. Some provinces like Yunnan depend on tobacco industry, which provides about half of government receipts.

Some experts point out that the tobacco control goes against the highly profitable tobacco business and that is the main reason why the smoking ban was not as effective as in other countries.

Yang Gonghuan is the deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who has been dedicated to tobacco control for years.

"Why the ban is not as effective as we expected? Because Chinese cigarette companies also join the executive group of the Framework Convention on tobacco control. Take the warning cigarette packing as an example, what we do now is not under the demand of the framework but actually in the need of those cigarette companies."

Yang also says that legislation and public promotion are the two most effective ways in the tobacco control.

"First is legislation. Some local governments think a smoking ban in all public places is not proper, which doesn't leave a way out for smokers. However, it is exactly why our smoking bans cannot be effective. In addition to that is public awareness. We should raise people's awareness through trainings and promotions. When people have the awareness, they won't just go away when they see someone is smoking, but they will go and stop them."

The new ban enacted by China's Health Ministry mandates business owners of places frequented by the public to post conspicuous no-smoking signs, carry out promotional activities to warn people about the dangers of smoking, and dispatch personnel to dissuade smokers.

However, some experts say the new ban fails to stipulate punishments for violations and that its enforcement and supervision need to be backed by strong and concrete terms in future revisions of the regulation.

For CRI, I'm He Fei.