Smoking cigarettes or 抽烟 (chōu yān) may be China’s favorite past-time. No matter where you go, be it inside restaurants, hospitals, at weddings or inside a cab, everyone is ripping cigarettes. More than half the male population of China smokes, and seeing how the cheapest cigarettes in China cost a mere 5 kuai 块，it’s not surprising. But unlike the U.S. and western world, smoking is not seen as a blight on society–rather–it’s supported wholeheartedly by the Chinese government 政府 (zhèng fǔ).

Surprised? Well you shouldn’t be. China is the biggest market for smokers, and it’s almost entirely unregulated. There are no warning labels, anti-smoking commercials, just SMOKE, SMOKE, SMOKE. Once the 改革开放 or “Open Door Policy” took effect in the early 1980’s Chinese citizens wanted to enjoy the same “hazards of affluence,” such as consuming sugary and fatty foods, drinking and smoking that the west was enjoying.

Unfortunately, as China began gravitating towards these hazards, the rest of the world was realizing how detrimental they were on society, creating a marketing vacuum. Companies started exporting cigarettes to China, India and the rest of Southeast Asia. The result: an eastern hemisphere living under a cloud of smoke.

To understand just how much Chinese people love smoking, take my gym example: Whenever I’d go into the weight room at 北大, Jiang, the super-muscular personal trainer, would have his pack of “Double Happiness” right next to his weight gloves. He’d do a couple of sets, then while still sucking down air as he caught his breath, would light up a cigarette and smoke in between words of encouragement such as 加油, or “step it up”.

On numerous occasions, while I’d have him spotting me on the bench press, he’d come over with a cigarette still dangling from his mouth, helping me clean while ash sputtered from his lips and onto my forehead and chest. Myself and other 老外s would mention that it is counter-productive to exercise and smoke, to which he’d respond by pointing to an opened window and exclaiming “污染” (wū rǎn) or “pollution”, smiling and then, as if to cement the point, lighting up yet another cancer stick.

A five-year-old in Xinjiang takes a nonchalant drag.

Distancing yourself from smoking is easier said than done, as the peer pressure mentality of Chinese citizens, coupled with the cultural norm to constantly offer a cig to a new acquaintance, business associate, friend or even a stranger makes refusing those “cowboy killers” nearly impossible if you want to experience the Chinese lifestyle （体验中国生活).

At weddings, the cigarettes fly. At KTV (karaoke) you’re more likely to get intoxicated from the lack of oxygen, than from the cheap beers your are drinking. When you go out to dinner, you have to teach your tastes buds to accept that charcoal taste as part of the many flavors absorbed into your dishes. It’s unbridled because no one is telling you to put it out for the sake of others.

China seems rather devoid of concerns for health, whether it relates to chemicals in the air or water, the quality and types of food that are consumed, or the long list of carcinogens hidden within Chinese goods. Liver, mouth, throat and lung cancer are already reaching epic proportions, while diabetes, heart disease and obesity are soon to follow in the next decade. China is becoming an unhealthy nation, making the same mistakes that the United States did from the 1950’s on.

Just because the air is dirty and a pack costs less than 80 cents, do you really want one more breath of smoke filling your lungs? I mean, if milk, eggs and grain are compromised by melamine, just think of the kind of chemicals that are getting slipped into that little, white tobacco-stick.