The official currency of the People's Republic of China is the renminbi (RMB), which literally means "people's currency", and is also called the yuan. It is issued by People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of China.

Its basic unit is the yuan. Yuan is casually written as 元. It is formally written as 圆 to prevent counterfeiting. There are ten jiao (or mao) to one yuan, ten fen to one jiao. 100 yuan is the largest denomination. In China, prices are usually marked with ￥ in front of them and occasionally with 元 (yuan) at the end of the price.

Credit cards

A growing number of international ATMs can be found in branches of the Bank of China as well as in some up-market hotels around the city. Major credit cards can be used to purchase goods in large department stores, hotels, and shopping centres, as well as for meals in some fancier restaurants. Foreign accounts may only be accessed from foreign ATMs.

• ATMs with appropriate logos provide services for Visa, MasterCard, others.
• Credit cards are accepted in many places, but check first.