When going to China, it is worthwhile to figure out in advance what kind of currency is in the country. Along with the well-known CNY, labeled CNY, RMB is often mentioned in news publications. What kind of currency is hidden behind these letters? In fact, these are the same Chinese yuan, also called "zhenminbi." In China, there are six designations of essentially the same currency. The main difference is that citizens and visitors are used to using different names of Chinese money.
The names of the modern currency of China
Throughout the country, not counting the independent Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, you can pay exclusively with Chinese yuan. This is the international currency name of China, encoded as CNY. So what is the RMB currency? This is an abbreviation for "Renminbi" spelled: renminbi (literally means: "people's money"). Many also use the name "renminbi", but it is gradually replaced by a more correct pronunciation.
The Chinese, saying "yuan", mean the equivalent of the word "currency", familiar to Europeans. For example, they call the euro - "European yuan", the dollar - "American yuan", the ruble - "Russian yuan". Translated from Chinese, "yuan" stands for "round", and is used to denote any money. Therefore, residents of China use the word "Jenminbi", meaning their own currency.
How to decrypt the price of goods
What is the currency of RMB (or CNY)? Whatever currency is indicated on the price tag, only yuan and their components will be accepted as payment. The monetary unit of the PRC is non-standard, since it is divided not into one hundred parts, but into ten: the yuan consists of 10 jiao, in turn, the jiao is divided into 10 fen. If a value of 5.24 is indicated, it will be announced as: 5 yuan 2 jiao 4 feng.
Local people often replace these names when communicating. Yuan turn into "kuai" (from the word "piece"), and jiao - into "mao" (from the concept of "small part"). Thus, the same amount equal to 5.24 will sound like this: 5 kuai 2 mao 4 fen. In spelling, most likely, the following abbreviation will be used: 5.24 RMB. What kind of currency, in addition to the Celestial RMB, can boast of so many designations?
Hieroglyphs and money symbols
On the price tags attached to Chinese goods, the abbreviations CNY or RMB are not so often used. What currency comes to mind when I see the symbol ¥? True, the Japanese yen is also denoted, so often the symbol is used not individually, but together with the Latin letters CN: CN ¥.
In addition to the Latinized symbol, the inhabitants of heaven use their own hieroglyph: 元. It is written separately or, like the previous character, together with the abbreviation: CN 元. This hieroglyph has many meanings, the main one is “head”. No wonder they say that "money is the head of everything." This character is the third in the history of the designation of banknotes. It is quite simple to write, as it consists of only 4 dashes. His predecessor had 10, and his ancestor had 16 traits. Both denoted the word “round” as a tribute to the use of round monetary units.
The first Chinese forms of money
The similarity of coins appeared on the territory of the present PRC even 200 years before our era. These were square-cut discs made of copper. Interestingly, this type of coinage was used until the twentieth century. The union of a circle and a square in the Celestial Empire means harmony between Yin and Yang, all female and male, including the earth and the firmament.
Paper money appeared in 1024, but at times it was completely replaced by coins and ingots. The reliability of this type of money was that it was cast from noble metals. The most famous was Liang, produced in almost two hundred different types. They had a different share of silver, on which their solvency depended.The most common were customs and treasury bark, weighing about 37.5 g, and a slightly smaller Shanghai bark - 33.7 g. Entire ingots called “iamb” were cast, they were equal to 50 lan.
The path to the renminbi
Despite the fact that the country printed banknotes, cast ingots and minted coins, China could not acquire a single currency in any way. In addition to local currency units, foreign banknotes, silver and coins were accepted for calculation. Apart from the Lyans, Spanish dollars, Tibetan sanges, Japanese banknotes and Mexican pesos were in use.
It was the yuan that was introduced in 1835, at that time in the form of silver coins. After 54 years, the division of the monetary unit began. As of 1889, the Chinese yuan consisted, as now, of 10 jiao and 100 fen, there were even smaller wen, meaning a thousandth of the currency.
What kind of currency (RMB), which became one for China, was finally decided in 1948. Then the People’s Bank of the People’s Republic of China was formed, which introduced an updated national currency, the Jenminbi. It became the only authorized monetary unit in the country.
Banknotes and coins of Chinese renminbi
Since the first printing of "people's money" banknotes at the end of 1948, five series of Chinese yuan banknotes have been issued. The design has changed more than once, the old bills were replaced with updated ones, with improved protection. In the spring of 2016, banknotes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 yuan are used in China.
Banknotes of the current, fifth, series were introduced in 1999, but occasionally banknotes of the fourth series may come across. New banknotes are easy to identify on the front side, on which is a portrait of Mao Zedong. The reverse depicts the landscapes and significant buildings of China: Lake Xihu (1 yuan), Taishan Mountain (2 yuan), Triple Gorge (10 yuan), Guilin neighborhood (20 yuan), the royal palace (50 yuan), the House of People's Assembly (100 yuan )
But what is RMB currency without coins? The Chinese use the following coins: 1 yuan, 1 and 5 jiao, as well as 1, 2 and 5 fans. On the reverse of the fans there is a coat of arms, and the reverse sides of the renminbi and jiao are decorated with images of flowers.
RMB to major world currencies
Now the people's money of the People's Republic of China is participating in the trading on the stock exchange, although the rate is partially controlled by the government. The Chinese people's (RMB) currency was even tightly tied to the dollar by order of the authorities. This lasted until 2005, after which the artificial containment ceased, and the renminbi rate became dependent on other monetary units. The main influence on the currency of China is made by dollars, euros, won and yens. The RMB currency is also quite strongly tied to the ruble, pound sterling, baht, and the dollars of Australia, Canada and Singapore.
In mid-April 2016, the RMB exchange rate looks like this:
1 USD = 6.46 CNY, or 1 Chinese yuan equals 0.15 US dollars.
1 EUR = 7.39 CNY, or 1 Chinese yuan is 0.14 euros.
1 GBP = 9.23 CNY, or 1 Chinese yuan is 0.11 pounds.
1 RUB = 0.10 CNY, or 1 Chinese yuan equals 10.27 Russian rubles.
1 UAH = 0.25 CNY, or 1 Chinese yuan equals 3.96 Ukrainian hryvnias.
We should not forget the answer to the question: “RMB - what kind of currency?” The course can contain both the abbreviation RMB and CNY, it doesn’t matter, because it means a single “people's money” - renminbi.
What currency to take to China and where it is better to exchange it for local money?
It is best to take US dollars or euros on the road. Rubles, hryvnias and other currencies of the CIS countries does not make any sense. Firstly, the search for a bank willing to make such an exchange can take many hours, and secondly, the rate will be so unprofitable that it is definitely worth buying another currency at home.
In different banks, the rate fluctuation is almost not noticeable, you can go into any. The main thing is to take a passport and get ready to fill out a questionnaire. The data in it are indicated in Chinese characters and English letters, you need to fill in English. The exchange procedure will take on average from half an hour to an hour.
Definitely not worth changing money at the airport. In an extreme case, you should exchange as much as is necessary to pay for the road to the city or hotel, and there you can already contact the bank or make an exchange directly at the hotel.At the hotel reception, a currency exchange is carried out only for its guests, you do not need to go to other hotels. The course at the hotel is usually 1-3% unprofitable than at the bank, but you do not have to fill out forms. It is also important that the staff speaks English, unlike the vast majority of bank employees.
