Objective To understand the cognitive situation of the general public of Chongqing on the policy of smoking control in an expectation of providing baseline data for comparing cognitive situations of the public before and after the implementation of the policy of smoking control.Method To adopt the means of meeting and asking people in the street to take a questionnaire survey which covered 874 pedestrians above 18 years old from public places of the main urban districts of Chongqing.Results 65.79% of those surveyed have heard of the policy of smoking control in public.43.82% of the surveyed have come to know about the policy through television.A big majority（85.81%）of the surveyed hold a supportive attitude to the policy.Differences exist among the three different groups of people i.e.smokers

non-smokers

and quitters of smoking in regard to issues of cognitive situation about second hand smoking

reaction to the smokers around

views on the effectiveness of the policy of smoking control in public

and the approval of disapproval of the policy of smoking control in public

and the differences were statistically significant（P<0.05）.The main factors influencing the attitudes of the public toward the policy of smoking control in public included gender

state of smoking

views on the harm of second hand smoking on heath

intention of quitting smoking

willingness to consider quitting smoking if the policy of comprehensive smoking control in public comes into implementation.Conclusion The state of public awareness of the policy of smoking control is less than desirable

and the governmental departments concerned shall proceed to strengthen the magnitude of enhancing the publicity of the policy as the majority of public remains doubtful of the expected effect of the policy of smoking control in spite of their supportive attitude toward it.