by Chris Bodenner
A reader keeps the thread going:
One issue we’ve encountered is the lack of respect for No Smoking sign/rooms/hotels by Chinese and other Asian tourists. That is beyond annoying, as I react horribly to cigarette smoke and will be ill for days and even weeks after being forced to breathe it (sometimes even through hotel ventilation in the wee hours of the morning). One time we were outside DC and a busload of Chinese tourists arrived after midnight to our completely non-smoking hotel. They made a loud ruckus settling in on the floor above us, and within minutes we could smell smoke in our room. Calls to management resulted in demands to stop smoking, which I can assure you were followed for maybe 10 minutes. Headaches, coughing, and bad sinus congestion were my reward for the next four or five days.
That anecdote brings to mind a Dish post from a few years ago:
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco. The 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey, conducted by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control in partnership with the US CDC and the World Health Organization, estimates that China has 350 million smokers, or more smokers than the entire population of the United States.
(Photo: A group of men in Hong Kong enjoy a smoke as they join a crowd of people watching a large video screen showing footage of the landing of China’s astronauts back to Earth on October 17, 2005. By Samantha Sin/AFP/Getty Images)
The Dish 