In all, 560,000 pupils in Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou Province responded positively after the Sunflower Cup Anti-Tobacco Project was launched in Guiyang in late October.

This is the sixth year for the program aimed at keeping children and teenagers in primary and middle schools on a healthy track.

Jointly sponsored by the Soong Chingling Foundation, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, British American Tobacco Company and other related organizations, the program over the past six years has spanned more than 25 provinces and municipalities and reached out to 30 million students.

Various campus activities were held in those areas, including story-writing and photographic contests with the theme of promoting the "no smoking" philosophy among the school students.

"In fact, the 'No Smoking' slogan is just a step towards a better behaved lifestyle and quality of life," said Yu Guilin, standing chairman of the Soong Chingling Foundation.

He added: "The starting point of the activity is to strengthen quality education of the children."

The campaign to keep children and youngsters away from cigarettes began with the "Keep Away From Tobacco" program among school students.

More and more young people are becoming smokers, but even more disturbing is the fact that they are getting younger and younger.

One in four people in China smoke, making it a large tobacco producing as well as consuming nation.

"Smoking is a serious problem that threatens public health, and the loss caused by smoking-related diseases far surpasses the revenue that comes from tobacco," Zhang Yifang, director of the Anti-Smoking and Health Association, told China Daily.

While various programs and campaigns are being conducted in schools, students themselves have been coming up with lots of unexpected ideas to combat the menace.

"We students are expecting more opportunities like this to make contact with society and broaden our angle of view," a 13-year-old middle school student named Xie Chao said.

(China Daily November 5, 2002)