Every day, Dr Li Qian Ting takes a lunchtime stroll in the gardens of the hospital where he works.
He says it is a much better way to relax than what he did before, when he smoked two packets of cigarettes a day.
"When I first started smoking, it was most likely something I didn't think much about. Everyone smokes, so you smoke, too."
The gerontologist quit two years ago, but, for 25 years, he was one of China's 350 million smokers.
Almost half of the world's cigarettes are smoked in China.
One in two men are smokers, and 28 per cent of the population smokes.
Now, a joint report by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development Program says the trend is on track to kill 200 million people over the next century.
The head of the World Health Organisation in Beijing, Dr Bernard Schwartlander, explains the reasoning.
"Tobacco is the only product that, when used as designed, actually kills half of the people eventually. So that means a third of all Chinese young men today may actually die of tobacco-related illnesses."
The report, "The Bill China Cannot Afford", has also found tobacco use is damaging the Chinese economy.
Dr Schwartlander explains that.
"We estimate, in 2014 alone, the bill was about $57 billion US, in cost for treatment but also in cost of loss in economy because people were sick and couldn't come to work."
In 2015, Beijing banned smoking indoors.
Violators can now be fined the equivalent of over AU$40.
The new regulations have helped increase awareness about the dangers of smoking.
But most of the country lacks any regulation, and the report says the habit is driving many into poverty.
In rural areas, smokers spend an average of 18 per cent of their salaries on cigarettes.
At Beijing's Tsinghua University, public-policy professor Hu Angang says the battle against smoking has only just begun.
"So far, only 18 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have tobacco-control measures. This means it covers only 10 per cent of China's population. So 90 per cent of the population is still unprotected by tobacco control."
The report recommends implementing smoke-free laws nationally and increasing the tobacco tax.
But that would affect the income of tobacco companies -- which are state-owned.
Those lobbying for change hope raising awareness of the benefits of curbing smoking will be heard among the country's most impoverished as well as its most powerful, though.
Professor Hu Angang says he remains hopeful.
"Developments in science and technology have allowed other industries to become more environmentally friendly, so, similarly, we should be able to make a huge change to the tobacco industry for society."
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