The Chinese love their cigarettes!

Among the most jarring cultural differences between the US and China for me has been the frequency of smoking. It feels like there is a smoker around every corner in Beijing and Hangzhou. Secondhand smoke permeates most public places, to the point that my clothes would smell like smoke many nights despite never smoking myself. I saw several no smoking signs at our hotel and around the Wanxiang campus, but that didn’t stop students and workers in the slightest. Multiple times, on my way to and from class, I would see campus cleaning staff smoking together directly under a no smoking sign. It was quite common to see people smoking near a little children’s playhouse outside our hotel as well, which was not especially reassuring. Taking pollution readings was made slightly more difficult when I had to find a place that someone had not smoked in recently. After seeing the prevalence of cigarettes in China, I am glad to know they are seeing a decline in popularity in the US.