The Chinese yuan is called the “renminbi” which means “People’s currency.” It is abbreviated as RMB. In spoken Chinese the yuan is also referred to as "kuai". In financial markets the yuan is abbreviated as "CNY". The Chinese character for yuan is 元 and the symbol ¥ is also sometimes used to denote the yuan. So 1 yuan, Y1, 1 RMB, ¥1 and 1 kuai are all the same thing.
Ten “jiao” or “mao” equals one yuan. One hundred “fen” equal one yuan. However fen are so invaluable that they are not commonly used to make purchases.
Commonly used bills are in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 yuan. There are also 1 mao, 5 mao and 1 yuan coins. Counterfeit bills are a problem. Most stores will check 50 and 100 yuan bills first in order to see whether or not it is fake. It is not uncommon for street vendors and cab drivers to give fake 50 or 100 yuan bills for change.
In China you can conveniently exchange Australian, Canadian, US, UK, Hong Kong and Japanese currencies as well as the Euro for Chinese renminbi. However, it is not as easy to exchange renminbi for foreign currency (see "changing money" in Shenyang for some tips).
You should keep your exchange receipts in case you need to exchange renminbi back to the currency of your home country when you exit China.
External Links