Chinese Currency

The official currency in China is the Renminbi (RMB or CNY) or in Chinese "Ren-min-bi". It translates as "the people's money". The basic unit is the yuan (also known as "kuai"). It is used to express all quantities including prices in shops etc. The yuan comes in paper notes of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 yuan notes, and 1 yuan coins. 

Chinese Currency Facts

• Legal tender in China: renminbi
• Shortened form: RMB or CNY (Chinese Yuan)
• Symbol: ￥
• Basic monetary unit: yuan (元) 
• Colloquial name: kuai (1 yuan = 1 kuai)
• Fractional units: jiao (角) and fen (分)
• Colloquial name: mao (1 mao = 1 jiao)
• Money conversion: 1 jiao = 10 fen; 1 yuan = 10 jiao = 100 fen

At present, paper notes often used in China are 1 jiao, 5 jiao, 1 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan, 20 yuan, 50 yuan, and 100 yuan. Fen is nearly out of circulation in the mainland market. As for coins, the main denominations are 1 yuan, 5 jiao, and 1 jiao.

Always check your change to be sure that you have not confused jiao and yuan. Jiao notes and coins can be useful if you want to drop small changes into a beggar's bowl.

Chinese Currency Exchange

Generally, most 4-star or 5-star hotels provide money exchange services, exclusively for guests, but with a relatively low exchange rate.

You can alternatively exchange your money as soon as you get off the plane at the airport.

The best places, however, for currency exchange are the banks, where exchange rates are generally better, including the Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, and other authorized banks.

Cash advances against a credit card can be arranged, a service charge is usually added. Consult with your bank before departing your country to confirm that your brand of check or credit card will be accepted.

Major credit cards (American Express, Mastercard, and Visa) are accepted by most major hotels and many well-known restaurants. ATMs compatible with US bank cards are also available throughout Hong Kong and to a limited extent in major Mainland cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

Passports must be presented when you convert your foreign exchange to the above banks. For convenience, you may like to ask the bank to pass on some smaller denominations of Chinese currency to you; otherwise, they will only give you 100-yuan notes.

If when you are preparing to leave, you still have some unused RMB, you can exchange them back into your own currency by presenting all your exchange receipts at the bank. The exchange rate, however, will be less favorable than before.

The exchange rate changes every second, so it’s hard to give you an explicit figure. But $1 (1 US dollar) usually equals around CN¥ 6.5 and €1 (1 Euro) amounts to about CN¥ 7.6.

Ways to Differentiate Genuine RMB from Non-genuine RMB

The Penetrating method of differentiating real RMB from false RMB can be summed up as four processes. Look; touch; listen and detect.

How to Look?

Firstly, look at the watermark. Looked at the illumination. RMB above 10 Yuan may see the person's head portrait or the flower and plant watermark in a watermark window place. The paper currency of 5 Yuan value is a full ancient printing plate currency watermark.

Secondly, look at the security line. There is a limpid straight line on the right side of the banknotes with 50 Yuan of the printing plate and 100 Yuan of the face value of the fourth set of RMB.

The "safety line" or the false print of RMB is printed with light color printing ink, misty and hard to find out or to put a silvery plastic line by handwork.

So it is easy to find that in currency paper borders there are silvery-white thrums differing in length by scissors.

On the safety line of the fifth set of RMB are some mini characters, which false RMB can hardly imitate as clear as real RMB. Besides, the line is easy to be drawn out.

Thirdly, look at the design color of the banknote face to see whether it is bright, the line is clear or not, whether the link-up is intact to connection and whether there is a gap or not.

How to Touch?

Since denomination RMB adopts embossing above 5 Yuan. The line forms paperback printing ink of crippling saying, especially in Braille point, in "People's Bank of China " model of written characters and in figure location of the fifth set of RMB, etc.

Using fingers to fondle these places, you can have a distinct concave-convex feeling. And obvious resistance can be felt when using fingers to streak comparatively new banknotes.

The counterfeit money taken over at present is turned out to be printed with an offset press, smooth without any concave-convex feeling.

How to Listen?

The paper of RMB is specialized, solid, and smooth. The comparatively new banknotes can make clear and melodious noise when you use your fingers to fluff the paper money.

While the counterfeit money paper becomes soft, infertile, and unendurable to crumpled and folded. And it makes oppressing noise.

How to Detect It?

Use simple instruments to carry out fluorescence checks. On the one hand, to detect whether there is a reflection of fluorescence. RMB paper that is not bleached in fluorescence has no reflection in the fluorescent lamp and becomes dark.

The counterfeit money, most of which is bleached, has the reflection of fluorescence in the fluorescent lamp. It becomes white and bright.

On the other hand, the real RMB has one or two fluorescent characters in light yellow. While the false RMB has fluorescent characters in grey-white luster.

The People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security, and the four banks authorized by the People's Bank of China have the right to confiscate counterfeit money.

They are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and China Construction Bank. All of them are wholly state-owned commercial banks.

According to PRC RMB regulation on administration, every banking institution handling the business of RMB access money can forfeit counterfeit money.

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