"But, as has been the case in many other countries, I think smokers will be supportive of this ban in the interests of their own health, and the health of the people around them," she said.

Jones admitted she was shocked to see a "Marlboro" jacket for kids while shopping during her recent visit to Beijing. She said better education would help stamp out such incidents where youngsters are unwittingly advertising harmful products.

These days, national television network CCTV affords no time to promoting anti-smoking campaigns. While Beijing residents remember a time when the network made a token gesture by dedicating 30 seconds a year to such promotions, even this has been dispensed with of late.

Instead, viewers are more likely to see a commercial featuring China's world record hurdler Liu Xiang endorsing Baisha, a tobacco company based in Hunan.

"It caught my attention, and this is unfortunate," said Tunon, who has been working in this field for over two decades. "Sports and tobacco do not mix. You can't promote health and promote tobacco at the same time."

While most people support smoking bans on buses and in office buildings, more than 50 percent of smokers oppose similar bans in restaurants and bars, according to The China Tobacco Control Report 2007, which was released by the Ministry of Health in May.

But China, the world's biggest producer of tobacco, is getting closer to winning the battle against smoking, claim experts with the Tobacco Control Office at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

Similar restrictions are being reviewed by Beijing Games co-host cities including Shanghai, Qingdao and Shenyang. No tobacco promotion is allowed in all six host cities during the Olympics. The country is also mulling putting graghic warnings on cigarette packages by 2009, comparable to the horrifying warnings used in Thailand.

"This time, people across the country are looking to Beijing as a front runner," said Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the Tobacco Control Office at the China CDC.

In April 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that the Beijing Olympics would be free of cigarette smoke, in line with all previous Games since the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, Canada. The central government also began dispensing annual stipends to local governments to help them curb tobacco consumption from 2005.

Last year, China's lawmakers campaigned for an independent tobacco control institution outside the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which is responsible for tobacco sales in the country.

Experts led by Health Minister Chen Zhu also asked government employees last month to quit smoking in order to serve as models for the public.

Professor Cui Xiaobo, an influential tobacco control expert with the Beijing Capital Medical University, was involved in both campaigns.

"It is a Herculean effort," he said. "We hope to use Beijing as a springboard before attempting to rewrite the law on a national level and make for fewer smoking-friendly areas."

"The most effective method to stub out smoking here is by legislating against it," said Yang Yan, a senior researcher with the Tobacco Control Office at the China CDC. China conformed to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global roadmap to stop tobacco use issued by the WHO, in 2003, and put this into practice two years later.

One of the problems in implementing China's pre-existing anti-tobacco laws is the amount of red tape involved. In Beijing, for example, an inspector needs to fill out 27 forms before fining a company that violates smoking regulations.

China's anti-smoking campaign needs more public and government support, but it is slowly finding more champions among local officials, said Cui.

Tunon said it is just a matter of time before China follows other more developed countries.

"I am cautiously optimistic," he said. "But China will make it."