FIVE people were caught smoking in Shenzhen North Railway Station’s east square by law enforcers Thursday during spot checks joined by reporters and volunteers from the Shenzhen Tobacco Control Association.

Each of the smokers was fined 50 yuan (US$7.51) for violating the smoking ban, according to sznews.com.

One smoker was caught smoking near the station’s entrance after seeing off his wife who boarded a high-speed train at the station. The man said he didn’t know that smoking is prohibited in the station’s square. Four other passengers who had just arrived in Shenzhen were also fined after being caught smoking in the square.

According to the law enforcers, over 9,000 people have been fined for smoking at Shenzhen North Railway Station this year, making up 60 percent of the smoking-ban violations citywide.

Cleaners and security guards in the station always bring plastic water bottles with them so that they can discourage passengers from smoking in the station and ask the smokers to put their cigarette butts into the bottles. A cleaner said over a dozen bottles could be loaded with cigarette butts each day.

Liu Xianghong, a spokesperson for the station’s operation and management center, said over 600,000 passengers visit the station per day, some of whom smoke after getting off the trains because they aren’t aware of the city’s smoking ban.

Liu said the “anti-smoking bottles” can avoid conflicts between passengers and station staffers because most smokers cooperate and put their cigarette butts into the bottles after they are informed of the smoking ban.

Gao Wenhui, president of the Shenzhen Tobacco Control Association, said such an approach should be adopted in other high-traffic-flow locations across the city, such as railway stations, border checkpoints and piers, to raise the efficiency of the anti-smoking campaign.

The city’s smoking ban, said to be the harshest of its kind in China, stipulates fines between 50 and 500 yuan for individual violators and up to 30,000 yuan for operators of nonsmoking venues who fail to comply with the ban, which was extended to all indoor areas Jan. 1 this year.

Three monthlong operations were launched by the city authorities in March, May and June to punish smoking-ban violators in leisure venues, restaurants, office buildings and hospitals citywide. The fourth operation, which is checking for smoking-ban violations in parks and Metro stations, will continue until the end of this month.

(Zhang Yang)