Taking its name from the People's Bank of China ( Zhongguo Ren Ming Yinhang ), Chinese currency is known as renmibi or 'People's Money'. The basic unit of renminbi si the yuan ( or kuai in the spoken form ). One yuan is made up of 10 jiao ( mao in the spoken form ), and one jiao is subsequently broken down into 10 fen. Paper notes are available only for yuan and come in the following denominations: 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1. Although still widely used in Beijing, the CNY 1 paper note is gradually being phased out in Shanghai in favour of the CNY 1 coin. Other coins available are 5 jiao, 1 jiao and the now rarely used 5 fen, 2 fen and 1 fen.
Until 2005, the yuan was pegged at a fixed exchange rate to the US dollar. Pressure from US and G7 finance ministers then pushed the Chinese government to change its policy and to instead peg the yuan to a number of world currencies. Yuan is relatively stable currency and is now fully accepted in Hong Kong as well as in parts of some other Asian countries such as Vietnam.
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