A Word about Money

The unit of currency in China is RMB, or Renminbi. Well, that's what the banks call, it anyway. The bills are called yuan and the symbol is a capital Y with an extra line on it... except when they use the symbol that looks a lot like a Greek pi. 

So, if you say yuan, everyone knows what you're talking about. Most people call them kwai, however. It's a lot like calling "dollars" "bucks", as in "Give me 20 bucks." Kwai means "lucky" in Chinese, and we all know that having money is certainly lucky -- hence the name. All the kwai have a picture of Mao on them, but the different values are different sizes and colors -- it's all very Monopoly. One yuan is worth about $.15 (or 10p if you're British). Spending 100 yuan notes is a lot like dropping twenties.

Next in line comes the jiao. Ten jiao make up on yuan -- so it's like a dime, except instead of just being a denomination it's its own thing. Remember, one yuan is worth $.15, so one jiao is worth... next to nothing. Jiao don't have pictues of Mao on them, they have pictures of cute children. However, everyone calls them mao. (Talk about screwing me up when I first got here -- the mao is the one withOUT his picture on it.) Jiao are bills, unless they are coins, and are smaller than yuan bills.

And then there are fen. One hundred fen make up one yuan -- like pennies. They are small, aluminum coins that weigh next to nothing. And if jiao are worth next to nothing, fen are worth nothing. Often, you don't even get them as change in stores. Today, my grocery bill came to 51 yuan 9 jiao and 3 fen. Instead of giving me back 7 fen, she just gave me back 1 jiao. Most items don't cost fen, it only comes into play with weighed produce. As far as I know, fen are so unimportant they don't even have nickname.

I guess that's how you know you've made it -- you get a nickname.