The Chinese currency, the yuan, has historical forerunners over the past 150 years.
The “people's money” - in Chinese “Renminbi” is now almost a world currency.
Beijing - The Chinese yuan is not a "new creation", but was introduced as early as 1889 - towards the end of the last imperial dynasty.
It replaced the previously common copper coins (cash) and silver coins (tael).
Even then, 1 yuan was divided into the 10 jiao and 100 fen, which are still in use today.
An even smaller unit called Wen, of which 1,000 was one yuan, also existed at the time.
Between the collapse of the German Empire and the Second World War, various regional currencies existed in parallel in China, including different versions of the yuan.
The yuan, which has been in circulation since 1949, is linked to this, which is also known as "Renminbi", which means "people's money".
Due to the enormous economic dynamism of the People's Republic, the currency, abbreviated as CNY, is one of the most important currencies in the world today, although it is not yet freely convertible.
One euro is equivalent to around 7.6 yuan today (as of April 2021).
All yuan banknotes today bear the likeness of the communist state founder Mao Zedong.
Yuan: history of currency
There has been a money economy in China since the Neolithic, and the Middle Kingdom was also groundbreaking when it came to paper money. The first banknotes came into circulation a thousand years ago. The main means of payment, however, were predominantly coins made of copper, silver, but also iron. The first modern yuan did not come into circulation until 1889. Almost at the same time, coinage based on the European model was adopted.
There is no continuity from this first yuan to its current namesake inasmuch as different regional currencies were used during the Chinese civil war and under the Japanese occupation since the 1920s, many of them also referred to as the yuan.
Today's yuan was only put into circulation by the Chinese Communist Party after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and is known as the renminbi or “people's money”.
Under this name, the CNY is more common in forex trading.
Yuan: notes and coins in different denominations
Chinese folk money comes in the form of banknotes and coins.
The banknotes are in circulation in the following denominations:
1 ¥
2 ¥
5 ¥
10 ¥
20 ¥
50 ¥
100 yen
Coins, however, are only available as 1 ¥.
The distribution of yuan notes and coins varies considerably from region to region: In some places, payments are made almost exclusively with notes, such as in Beijing or Qingdao;
In other areas, such as the metropolis of Shanghai, the 1 ¥ coins are more likely to be used.
The sub-units of the yuan, namely Jiao and Fen, are in circulation in notes of 1, 2 and 5 units each.
There are also coins for 1 and 5 Jiao, as well as 1, 2 and 5 Fen.
However, the fen is less and less to be found, as the prices in stores are usually set at full jiao.
Where in exceptional cases there are prices that end in 5 Fen, they are usually rounded down when paying.
Only those who change foreign currency when entering the country, for example at Beijing Capital International Airport, will in this case also receive Fen coins.
A special feature is that the bank note with the highest denomination over 100 ¥ is just the equivalent of a good 13 euros.
If you pay large amounts in cash, you always have a thick pile of money with you.
However, this happens less and less because electronic means of payment and also mobile payment have become commonplace, even for large sums of money.
Yuan Renminbi: The current rate and in retrospect
The yuan is not yet freely convertible. As of 1994, the rate of the yuan was pegged to that of the US dollar due to China's increasing international trading activity - most recently at a rate of 8.2765 yuan for one US dollar. In an effort to make the yuan a global reserve currency, the Chinese central bank decided in 2015 to gradually decouple the yuan from the US dollar. Since then, the value of the yuan has been based on a basket of currencies, half of which consists of the US dollar, the euro and the yen, with the US dollar being the most important single currency.
The currency basket, also called CFETS RMB Index, corresponds in its composition proportionally to the trading volume of the represented countries with the People's Republic. Since October 1, 2016, the yuan renminbi has been part of the IMF's world currency basket as the fifth currency. The exchange rate has moved between 7 and 8 yuan for one euro in recent years.
