December 1^st, 1948 marked the founding of the People’s Bank of China, and the first issuance of Renminbi (People’s Currency), the currency of China. The symbol for Renminbi is “¥”, which is derived from the first letter of the romaniced spelling for the word “Yuan”, the principal unit in the currency. The currency uses decimal system. The Yuan (“kuai” on the street) is divided into 100 fen (which no longer exsists as a form of cuurrency); 10 fen equal 1 jiao (mao on the street). The face values of notes are: 100 yuan, 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, 5 yuan, 2 yuan and 1 yuan; 5 jiao, 2 jiao and 1 jiao; 5 fen, 2 fen and 1 fen; there are also coins for 1 yuan, 5 jiao, 1 jiao, 5 fen, 2 fen and 1 fen. At writing about 8.1 Yuan equals one US dollar.