General Information » Money » Local Currency

Taking its name from the People’s Bank of China (Zhongguo Renmin Yinhang), Chinese currency is known as renminbi or ‘people’s money’. The basic unit of renminbi is the yuan (or kuai in the spoken form). One yuan is made up of 10 jiao (mao in the spoken form), and one jiao is subsequently broken down into 10 fen. Paper notes are available only for yuan and come in the following denominations: 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1. Although still widely used in Beijing, the one yuan paper note is gradually being phased out in Shanghai in favour of the one yuan coin. Other coins available are 5 jiao, 1 jiao and the now rarely used 5 fen, 2 fen and 1 fen.

Until 2005, the renminbi was pegged at a fixed exchange rate to the US dollar. Pressure from US and G7 finance ministers then pushed the Chinese government to change its policy and to instead peg the renminbi to a basket of world currencies. Renminbi is a relatively stable currency and is now fully accepted in Hong Kong as well as in parts of some other Asian countries such as Vietnam.