Stop Smoking Aid!!

So I started this blog a little over a year ago, and it has been my impression that virtually no one has followed it. Yeah, I knew some friends of mine would peruse it from time to time, but for the most part I had no expectations that any strangers would actually take the time to read what I've been passing off as a blog. Yet low and behold, while recently looking over some past blogs I've noticed that strangers have taken the time to comment on my pieces, meaning that people have somehow come across this site and cared enough to critique it. WOOHOO!! Unfortunately I haven't written anything in about two months, so I'm sure those readers have abandoned me and I'm back to writing to myself...

Anyways, here is a picture I took of an interesting vending machine I found at the Bird's Nest stadium that dispenses a "Stop Smoking Aid." I have no idea what the hell this stuff is, but 控烟贴 is translated to Tobacco Control Paste. That name just gives me the nauseating mental-image of an old Chinese guy brushing his teeth with this crap. But who knows, maybe this 10 RMB product really is a miracle elixir!


I was intrigued enough to try to find this product's availability online, and was actually able to find it sold on alibaba.com (a Chinese version of eBay). For only $54 USD (quite the markup), you can own this product that guarantees to cure you of smoking in 35 days or less with NO side-effects! Seeing that over two trillion cigarettes are consumed each year in China (making it the worlds largest smoking market) I certainly hope this product works! In the meantime, here's an interesting Xinhua article that seems to indicate that the government is looking into tighter smoking regulations. I'll believe that when it actually happens.