A survey of students in grade six in primaries to grade one in senior middle schools has found that about 18 percent smoke regularly, Saturday's Beijing Morning Post.
The three-year Beijing Normal University study found that 30 percent of the boys and 4 percent of girls in the 13-17 age group smoke.
Teenagers often start smoking out of peer pressure, if they want to be one of the "cool" ones, the newspaper said.
(China Daily May 26, 2002)