Understand Chinese Money
Chinese Renminbi is made up of both paper money and coins, which is formally called Yuan , more often known as Kuai (used in spoken Chinese). It breaks down into units of ten Mao or Jiao , and one hundred Fen . The bills available are: RMB 100, RMB 50, RMB 20, RMB 10, RMB 5, RMB 2 and RMB 1. Coins are usually use for small change you find coins of 1 kuai, 1 Jiao, 2 Jiao and 5 Jiao. Rarely used anymore, but still there are the Fen coins.

Be aware that at present China is suffering from a rash of counterfeiting . Fake notes are usually produced with color photocopiers and are easy to tell as the paper feels different. A few years ago you were only likely to see fake RMB 100 notes, but these days there are even fake RMB 5 notes in circulation.

Banking in Shanghai
The monetary unit in China is the RMB (or yuan). Rates fluctuate a bit, but are generally pretty stable (8.2 to 8.3 RMB per US $1). This may change as China moves to make to RMB fully convertible in next few years. ATM machines are available all over, and many will work with your bank account from home. Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted at places frequented by foreigners, though most transactions in smaller stores are cash only. There are no checking accounts.

Expats can open a bank account at most of the Shanghai banks although the transfer of currencies is usually limited to certain amounts. China does have strict laws on currency import and export and if you are going to move sums of cash in or out China in excess of $5,000, at the airport you'll be required to show documentation and receipts for the currency exchanges and/or requirement to carry that amount.

Guangzhou