Chinese city bans indoor smoking

China’s central Xi’an city, popular among tourists for the world-famous Terracotta Warriors museum, has banned smoking in all indoor public venues.

The regulation by the city government will take effect from November 1.

Smokers who do not adhere to the regulation, released on Tuesday, will be fined 10 yuan ($ 1.5), and venue owners may be fined up to 1,000 yuan ($ 146).

The regulation also prohibits smoking in some outdoor public places such as schools, stadiums and health institutions for pregnant women and children.

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Xi’an, home to the Terra-Cotta Warriors museum, is the latest major Chinese city to ban smoking in all indoor public venues, following Beijing and Shanghai.

China has over 300 million smokers and with 740 million people exposed to second-hand smoke.

The Chinese government has set a target to reduce the smoking rate among people aged 15 and above to 20 per cent by 2030 from the current 27.7 per cent, according to the ‘Healthy China 2030’ blueprint issued in 2016.