The 100-yuan note will be your workhorse. They don’t print anything bigger than a hundred, unfortunately, so you will end up with an uncomfortably large wad of bills in your wallet / passport holder.

We didn’t see much of the 50CNY note, but twenties and tens were used frequently.

You’ll get change back in fives and ones. A surprising number of everyday items are less than 10 CNY - so you will go through your 5 and 1 notes faster than you’d think.

Just like Western money, there are older-design bills floating around; mostly fives and ones. You’ll be able to tell by the date it was issued - to you, they will be nice collectors’ items.

For the Chinese equivalent of “cents,” you’ll receive jiao (jee-ow) which are also called mao (maow). Ten jiao make up one yuan. (There is a one-cent unit called a “fen”, but it’s not worth minting - and stores round everything up to the nearest jiao.)

The confusing part about jiao is that it comes in small bills as well as coins. There are 1-jiao and 5-jiao coins, and paper notes:

The jiao bills are noticeably smaller than the yuan.

Compared to Western money, jiao are not worth converting back, but you will get some use out of them in your day-to-day shopping in China. Plus, they’re great souvenirs for the folks back home.

1. ‣weninchinainfo@mac.com

1. ‣Bank of China
   

2. ‣Industrial & Commercial Bank of China
   

3. ‣Agricultural Bank of China
   

4. ‣China Construction Bank
   

5. ‣China Merchants Bank
   

6. ‣HSBC (Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank)

1. ‣Passport & Money Holders
   

2. ‣Packing Checklist