New rules banning indoor smoking are being ignored by smokers and some businesses, according to a report by Beijing Morning Post.

Yang Gonghuan, the director of the tobacco control office of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said no punishment details were issued and the government's department of health lacks management power to enforce the ban which came into effect on May 1, 2011.

A male patient, smoking together with others near a window in a hospital, said: "Nurses can not find us smoking here. Smoking is not allowed in the sickrooms and we dare not smoke there."

In one café, people who sit in the no-smoking zone can smell cigarettes from the smoking zone. According to the new rules, public places are not allowed to set any smoking zones but must ban smoking overall.