A local company in Lanzhou, in northwestern China's Gansu Province, recently announced a new rule: all employees must take chopsticks when coming to work.
   
According to the company manager, by doing this his employees won't use disposable chopsticks when having lunch at the nearby restaurants, thus they will be aware of environmental protection.
   
Every weekday morning the boss will stand at the office entrance checking one by one to make sure all his employees abide by the rule. If one fails to take a pair of chopsticks out of his bag will face a 10-yuan fine, and will definitely be fired if he fails to bring chopsticks three times.
   
However, most employees say their manager won't be able to check if they actually use the chopsticks or not. They think it's embarrassing using their own chopsticks in restaurants, and many restaurants don't allow customers to use their own.

(CRI August 31, 2005)