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Comment by avisser | Hacker News Reader

Is it a yuan or is it a Renminbi?

It's a little confusing, but technically RMB (renminbi) is the official name of the currency and CNY (yuan) is the base unit of the currency. Think of it like the difference between USD ("US Dollar") vs "dollar and cents", except there is no fractional yuan equivalent of cents, so it's all just yuan.

Pretty sure the jiao (角) (1/10th of a yuan) is still in use?

Oh yeah, you're right, I forgot about that. It doesn't really get used much except occasionally for very small transactions, usually ones less than 10yuan.

nobody really use jiao (1/10th RMB/CNY), same as nobody really use yuan (CNY/RMB)

they are called mao (1/10th RMB/CNY) and kuai (CNY/RMB) in China

but mao pretty much dont exist anymore now with electronic QR payments everywhere even in food stalls, heck even beggars have QR codes and fen is for many many years more like some monopoly money papers

No there are cents, they are called fen (分).

It's in Japan that it's all just Yen.

Yeah, you're right, you just literally never see any transaction using the 0.01 unit (fen) and only very rarely see any transaction use the 0.1 unit (jiao).

Isnt 0.1 one mao?

That's another name for it, yes. Similarly, yuan is sometimes colloquially called kuai. Sort of like dollars vs bucks.

Japan has sen (銭) as well, the coins were just inflated into oblivion years ago. Still used for eg stock prices though.

Oh interesting. In China it is still used (you can still see prices with decimals beyond share prices and petrol stations) though on the way out.

So the conversation might go, "Hi we're Deutsche Bank - we're able to clear renminbi transactions up to one million yuan." ?

That would most likely be the most correct way to say it, yes.

The currency code is CNY or Chinese Yuan. Yuan itself is like “dollar,” with many different countries calling their currency “dollars.” Renminbi refers to the Chinese currency as a whole rather than any particular unit.

Fun fact: the Japanese yen and Korean won are both cognates of "yuan". The character 圆 simply means "round" as in circular.

it's actually "kuai" (pronounced same way as popular incorrect name of famous The Bridge on the River Kwai (the correct name is K(h)waE)) in Chinese streets, if you use yuan or renmimbi you will sound like you pretend to be some snobbish TV news host

I don't think I've ever used anywhere in street, shop or restaurant yuan/renmimbi, at least not in Beijing and around, some people may use yuan, hardly anyone renmimbi

here you have AI answer based on Reddit thread, which I can confirm is correct:

"In everyday spoken Chinese, kuai (块) is overwhelmingly the most common term used to state prices. Yuan (元) is used in formal writing and official contexts, while renminbi (人民币) names the overall currency system like "Sterling" or "USD" rather than a daily price unit."

As a Western analogy, GBP has similar levels of formality:

Reminbi ~= Pound Sterling

Yuan ~= Pound

Kuai ~= Quid

Is quid really used in UK by 80-90% people? I thought it's very informal slang word (of some lower educated people), in China most of the people just use kuai (well I guess not bank tellers).

Pretty much everyone uses it in informal settings in my experience.

In a professional environment, people usually say pound.

The distinction is context-based, not class- or education-based.

It's my understanding the same is the case for kuai vs yuan as well?

> Is quid really used in UK by 80-90% people?

I deal with Brits on a daily basis.

I seldom hear them use the term "pound". Everyone says quid.

Both. Renminbi is the currency name, while the yuan is the base unit.

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