Opinions, knowledge and resources from China Checkup's expert contributors
If you're travelling to meet or dealing with a Chinese company it is worth bearing in mind that there are several different types of Chinese currency.
Depending on whether your business is in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan you could well need to be looking at 4 separate exchange rates.
Here we introduce each of the 4 Chinese currency currently in use in "Greater China" - the Renminbi, Hong Kong Dollar, Macau Pataca & New Taiwan Dollar.
In this article we use the term "Chinese Currency" to mean the currencies currently being used throughout the area of "Greater China".
If you're thinking "surely China only has one currency like every other country" then think again, it is a lot more complicated than that.
China (or more formally "The People's Republic of China") is a very large and politically complicated country which, under the "one country, two systems" principle, governs the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
Meanwhile, the self-governing island of Taiwan (a.k.a. Republic of China) considers itself to be the real government of China - a viewpoint diametrically opposed by Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province.
As you can see, it is a very complicated picture, and that is where the phrase "Greater China" comes in handy - it allows us to talk about China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Taiwan without getting political!
The map to the right hand side shows the location of each part of "Greater China".
Different parts of "Greater China" follow different financial systems, business registration systems, laws and indeed, currencies.
Here are 4 currencies in daily use in the various parts of "Greater China" starting with the money used by the vast majority of people and companies, Mainland China's renminbi:
So now you know the four Chinese currencies, you might be wondering what they are worth?
Well, here are the live currency cross rates for each Chinese currency against the United States Dollar and the Euro:
View this comprehensive list of cities in China from Ankang to Zunyi!
We have included all cities in China that are either at, or above, prefecture-level and they are listed both alphabetically and grouped by province.
This list of Chinese AMR websites includes links to the AMR branch website for each province/administrative region in China.
In case you're wondering, the acronym "AMR" stands for "Administration for Market Regulation", which is a newly-launched Chinese government agency created by the merger of many previous agencies, including the AIC and AQSIQ.
This super regulator is now responsible for a wide range of regulatory matters in Mainland China, so if you need to get in touch with them you should find this list of Chinese AMR websites useful.
The China AEO Certificate is a document held by companies in China engaged in import and export activities.
Issued by China Customs, the certificate specifies the company's enterprise classification, which determines their level of inspections and more.
Requesting and verifying a supplier's China AEO certificate can be a sensible measure to understand if they are registered with China Customs as an "Authorized Economic Operator" and to check their AEO type.
Matt Slater
Author
Hi there, I'm Matt, the Founder & CEO of China Checkup. Originally from the UK, I am now based in Brisbane, Australia.
Frustrated by the scarcity of concise, high-quality and timely information about Chinese companies, I setup China Checkup whilst living in Shanghai in 2013.
My team are proud that China Checkup's company verification reports have now helped thousands of clients from all corners of the world to do business in China more safely.