Anonymous Patron writes “From The Independent Online: Forget about cars, booze or stacks of cash. Books, particularly those decorated with gold and platinum, are the new vehicle for bribery in China, according to a Chinese lawmaker.
Chen Shuyu, a member of the National People’s Congress, wants the state publishing authority to ban production of such books, which retail at $1 250 (about R8 000) or more, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday.”
Chinese Money
In the story they mention that books costing $1250 U.S. Dollars or R8000 where going to be banned. I want to give some quick background on Chinese Currency
When I was in China I would see signs that had prices that looked like this.
R50 or 50 RMB or 50 Y
The Chinese currency is called the Yuan so I understood what 50Y was 50 Yuan but I didn’t know what R or RMB was. In Chinese the word “Renminbi” (RMB) means “People’s Currency”. So the R and RMB was used for “Renminbi”. R50 or 50 RMB or 50 Y all means 50 Yuan. Just sometimes they write it as 50 of the people’s currency.
One last note about the story. $1250 U.S. dollars would actually be 10000 Yuan not 8000 Yuan. The exchange rate is 8 to 1. The writer of the story converted the $1000 but did not worry about the $250. When you have an 8 to 1 exchange rate $250 is alot of money.