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...We'll Find An Etiquette Campaign

I just love the headline...

BEIJING - Kate and Leo did it on the Titanic, so why shouldn't Chinese? After all, the habit goes back five millenia.

Liu Ying, a Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health official, noted that spitting was a major cause of the spread of respiratory diseases, especially in spring, echoing a Chinese slogan: "Spitting kills even more than an atomic bomb." (…) "I think it's healthier to spit rather than to swallow," said a netizen who called himself Mop Paparazzi on the Mop.com. Liu, however, said people didn't understand the purpose of the drive. "We are calling for stopping the rampant spitting on the pavement, not urging everyone not to spit at all," she explained. "You can wrap your spit with a napkin and throw it into a trash bin," she added. (…) The Olympic host has taken a series of measures to curb spitting, such as the distribution of spit sacks and a 50-yuan (US$7) fine for spitters.

A recent survey by the Beijing-based Renmin University found that in 2007, 2.54 percent of people surveyed in Beijing still spat in public, down by 2.36 percentage points from 2006. Or at least, that was how many admitted doing so. Many Chinese take the practice for granted.

I’m pretty sure that those 2.54 percent all live in my neighborhood!!!