The forthcoming government ban on smoking at all indoor public venues goes into effect this May 1 and with this ban, China joins a growing list of countries, ranging from Bhutan and Bahrain, to India, Russia, the US and beyond, that have enacted some form of official ban on tobacco use. 

This should be welcome news for long-suffering non-smokers, but as we've already pointed out, conventional wisdom casts doubt over how, exactly, such a ban would be enforced (venue owners, for now, would bear the brunt of fines) in a land where roughly a quarter of the population lights up on a regular basis, half of all male doctors partake, over 500 million suffer from respiratory ailments due to second hand smoke and more than 1.2 million people die from smoking related ailments each year. Add to the fact that the last round of smoking bans during the Olympics in 2008 were announced and promptly ignored (save for in cabs) in most public spaces, and it’s difficult to believe that this new smoking ban will have much of an effect in the near future. 

Contrary to popular stereotypes about the Shanghainese, Helen Chang of Savills has not just moved to Beijing, but embraced it. Her company’s Beijing headquarters overlook Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD) and Chang is the first to admit that this place has really grown on her during the past two years. Agenda sat down with Chang to better understand Savills’ residential operations in Beijing, the limitations of being a foreign-owned real estate company, and what the best places to invest are.

Xinhua last night announced that the Beijing PSB will today (May 15) embark upon a 100-day crackdown on foreigners who do not have a legitimate visa, are working illegally or are living with no registered residence.

Just in time for the annual period of dog registration, the Beijing Municipal Government’s Department of Domesticated, Feral and Wild Animals has unveiled new legislation for dog owners in the capital. If you live inside the Second Ring Road, the new maximum height for a dog (from floor to shoulder) is now 18cm or 7.1 inches. This is down from the maximum height of 35cm (1.1 feet) legislated in the Beijing Dog Keeping Regulation of 2003. Dog owners who live within the eight districts of “strict enforcement of dog ownership regulations” (anywhere inside the Fifth Ring Road) but outside the Second Ring Road remain subject to the 35cm regulation.

The number of Beijing cars finally broke the five-million mark last week. The slight glimmer of good news is that due to the license plate lottery that was put into effect early last year Beijing only added 173,000 cars to the road in 2011 (a drop from more than 700,000 in 2010), dramatically postponing the proposed date for hitting five million by nearly a year.