China Currency, Chinese Money

The third version of Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB), two yuan (kuai) bill, both sides

A Overview of Today's Chinese Currency

(If you come from the previous page of Chinese Yuan, you can skip this overview to see the third version of China currency below.)

The present Chinese currency is called Yuan. Its code is CNY.

Chinese people called it Reminbi (or Ren Min Bi, RMB), meaning "people's currency."

There are three basic measuring units for Chinese currency, the first one and also the primary one is Yuan (or Kuai as many called it), which is equivalent to the measuring units like the dollar and pound.

The other two are Jiao and Fen, which function like the dime and cent in American currency.

Jiao is also referred to as Mao by many Chinese. For the sentence "I spent two Jiao for this bag," they may just say, "I spent two Mao for this bag."

Here are the currency values and conversion formulas for the three Chinese money units:

10 fen = 1 jiao (or 1 mao)
10 jiao = 1 yuan ( or 1 kuai)
100 fen = 1 yuan

For example: 8.88 yuan = 8 yuan 8 jiao 8 fen (or 8 kuai 8 mao 8 fen).

It's good to familiarize yourself with Chinese money.

(You may be aware why we used 8 in this example. Yes, eight is one of the Chinese lucky numbers. We wish you good luck in China!)

For online currency exchange converter, go here.

For China or other foreign currency rates, go here.

China Currency: the Looks of Chinese Money Part 3

There are five versions of Chinese currency. The following is the third one, which was presented by People's Bank of China in April 20, 1962 when China intended to focus on its development on agriculture and industry.

The biggest bill for this version is 10 yuan. They could be used along with the second version that was issued on March 1st, 1955.

These bills have stopped circulating since July 1, 2000. If you are doing currency trading and want to buy foreign currency, like buying renminbi for the purpose of collecting, keep in mind that the market values of this version has increased about 30 times as of 2009.

According to some of the Chinese collectors, this version of China currency is the most valued one. It's also the one that has circulated the longest--a total of 38 years.

Here are one jiao (mao) and two jiao (mao) bills, both sides