China: part of the culture
This country does things a little differently. Here, you can’t buy packs of cigarettes in the supermarket or at a gas station, but in separate shops that must have a special permit. That does not mean that the price is a lot higher per se: you pay about 3.20 euros (3.62 USD) for an expensive brand. A cheaper brand costs less than 50 euro cents (0.57 USD). These are low prices, but they have increased in recent years. It cost even less before. These are not the famous brands like Camel and Marlboro, in China they smoke cigarettes manufactured by domestic brands. They do that en masse. Around 300 million Chinese people, a quarter of the population, like to light a cigarette from time to time.
Smoking is part of Chinese culture. When you walk into a store, chances are the seller will offer you a cigarette out of courtesy. For this reason, it’s not surprising that lung cancer is very prevalent in this country. In addition to raising the price of packs of cigarettes, China is taking even more measures in order to discourage smoking: smoking is no longer allowed on television and the Chinese are no longer allowed to light a cigarette in public buildings. But, just like in Russia, plenty of people ignore these rules.