On Monday, August 10th 2015, Chinaâs decision to devaluate the Yuan by 2% became public. The reasons for the devaluation seem to be the falling exports and a slowed down manufacturing sector. With a depreciation of the Yuan, the Central Bank hopes to push down the borrowing costs and to increase Chinaâs exports as it could offer cheaper prices again.
According to the Peopleâs Bank of China the trading band was reset at 6.2298 US Dollar (-1.9%). The so called âone-off depreciationâ causes the Yuan to be at its weakest point against the US dollar since three years.
In comparison to other Asian currencies, the Yuan against the dollar had become relatively expensive. As a result, China implemented fiscal, monetary and equity-boosting policies, but all of these attempts to diminish the fear of an economic slowdown seemed to fail.
Another or maybe the only way to boost the economy again was the depreciation of the Yuan. However, the consequences of devaluating the currency might be fatal. Most likely Chinaâs competing currencies, like the Singapore dollar, the South Korean won or the Taiwan dollar, will fall as well. This âcould generate headlines heralding the start of a devaluation warâ, according to Masafumi Yamamoto, senior strategist at Monex in Tokyo (theguardian.com).
Also other currencies like the Australian dollar and regional markets reflect the impact of the depreciation as investors are worried about an ongoing fall in demand from Chinaâs economy.
Next to the possible snowball effect of the worldâs second biggest economy by GDP on the other Asian currencies, the devaluation could also set off copycat devaluations by central banks to keep their own competitive position against China.
Some other possible theories about the devaluation of the Yuan are (theguardian.com):
âThe devaluation may be an attempt to make trading more open and market-basedâ, observers said.
âI donât think this is a reaction to the weak trade data over the weekend, I think itâs because of the SDR,â said Zhou Hao of Commerzbank in Singapore.
âThey need to have a market-based mechanism and they need volatility.â
Source:
The Guardian. 2015, China devalues yuan by 2% to boost flagging economy. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/11/china-devalues-yuan-by-2-to-boost-flagging-economy [Accessed 11th of August 2015]
Généralités :
Chaque jour en Chine, nous prenons nos sacs pour acheter nos provisions, notre eau et nos bonnes affaires mais nous n’arrĂȘtons jamais de penser Ă la devise de ce pays et Ă ses origines. Le renminbi (RMB) est la monnaie officielle de la RĂ©publique populaire de Chine . Le nom signifie littĂ©ralement “monnaie du peuple”. La monnaie est Ă©mise par la Banque populaire de Chine, l’autoritĂ© monĂ©taire de la Chine. Ce qu’ils Ă©mettent actuellement est: „ 0,1, „ 0,2, „ 0,5 (1, 2 et 5 jiao), „ 1, „ 2, „ 3, „ 5, „ 10, „ 20, „ 50, et „ 100 Yuan. Tous les billets de banque sont faits par China Banknote Printing et Minting Corporation. Il y en a un Ă Chengdu, alors faites une visite si vous passez par lĂ !
En tant que citoyen britannique, une livre Stirling sera actuellement Ă©gale Ă dix Yuans (environ). C’est donc pratique car je peux diviser ou multiplier par dix pour juger de la valeur des biens. Cela vous fait aussi rĂ©aliser Ă quel point la vie quotidienne est bon marchĂ© en Chine ! A titre d’exemple, oĂč je vis dans le Buckinghamshire (au nord de Londres), cela me coĂ»te 3,75 ÂŁ pour un voyage de 20 minutes en ville. Quand je compare cela Ă mon coĂ»t de transport Ă Qingdao, c’est 1 Yuan pour la mĂȘme durĂ©e de bus. Mon billet d’autobus quotidien en Angleterre semble maintenant 37 fois plus cher qu’il ne devrait l’ĂȘtre ! Je vous prĂ©sente alors l’humble Yuan qui peut vous emmener partout en ville!
Le billet d’1 Yuan
Sur le billet d’1 yuan, il y a un portrait de l’ancien dirigeant chinois Mao Zedong, au verso vous trouverez le lac Xihu de Hangzhou (sud est de la Chine). Juste pour ajouter une certaine confusion, il existe aussi une piĂšce d’un yuan, mais nous allons simplement parler des billets dans ce blog.
Le billet de 5 Yuans
Le billet de 5 yuans a Ă©galement un portrait de Mao Zedong et le verso reprĂ©sente Taishan Maintain, une montagne situĂ©e dans la province du Shandong (est de la Chine), classĂ©e par l’UNESCO comme patrimoine naturel et culturel mondial.
Qu’est-ce que 5 Yuans peuvent vous apporter? Un billet de 5 yuans peut Ă peu prĂšs vous donner un paquet de biscuits Oreo si vous mourrez d’envie de biscuits occidentaux. Pour une raison inconnue, je consomme environ cinq paquets par semaine ! Mais je dois arrĂȘter cela immĂ©diatement Ă l’approche de l’Ă©tĂ© si je ne veux pas ĂȘtre confondue avec une baleine tandis que je prends un bain de soleil sur la plage de Qingdao. Malheureusement, ils sont dĂ©licieux et une sont une collation bien pratique …
Le billet de 10 Yuans
Le billet de 10 Yuans est trĂšs utile. Le recto est un portrait de Mao Zedong (surprise !) tandis que son verso est un dessin des pittoresques Trois Gorges. Voir ci-dessous:
Un billet de 10 Yuans peut vous servir Ă obtenir une variĂ©tĂ© de choses. Ă Qingdao, vous serez en mesure de donner cette note Ă un chauffeur de taxi pour votre course autour de la zone principale du centre-ville. Si nous revenons au prix de mon ticket de bus Ă Buckinghamshire, ce trajet en taxi est toujours environ 4 fois moins cher ! Si vous avez beaucoup de bagages, faites du shopping ou revenez d’un club, ces 10 Yuans vous seront prĂ©cieux.
Le billet de 20 Yuans
Le billet de 20 yuans, lancĂ© en 1999, prĂ©sente un autre portrait de Mao Zedong et son verso montre un dessin de la pittoresque riviĂšre Lijiang en Chine du Sud. Si vous avez un bon budget et ĂȘtes en groupe, vous pouvez gĂ©nĂ©ralement utiliser un billet de 20 Yuans (voir un peu plus) pour un dĂ©licieux repas traditionnel dans un restaurant. C’est une chose que j’aime en Chine; vous pouvez obtenir de bons repas pour un prix entre 20 et 35 RMB. Qingdao est cĂ©lĂšbre pour sa dĂ©licieuse cuisine de la mer, de nombreux plats diffĂ©rents sont disponibles. Mais si vous aimez la vie marine en dehors de l’assiette, sachez qu’un ami a achetĂ© la semaine derniĂšre un poisson pour animal de compagnie, avec le bol et la nourriture inclus juste pour 20 Yuans!
Le billet de 50 Yuans
J’aime voir 50 yuans dans mon sac car cela signifie que je peux acheter tout ce qui prĂ©cĂšde, donc habituellement vos basiques pour la journĂ©e. Un repas dehors – tick, un voyage en bus – tick … un peu plus de biscuits Oreo – Oui! Donc habituellement, vous aurez au moins besoin d’une note de 50 yuans pour la journĂ©e.
Le billet de 100 Yuans
Le week-end dernier, j’ai pensĂ© que je m’offrirais une bouteille de rosĂ© de Californie, et le vendeur a suggĂ©rĂ© un White Zinfandel (mon prĂ©fĂ©rĂ©) j’ai alors Ă©tĂ© ravi de payer le prix de 100 Yuans. Cependant, vous pouvez obtenir du vin pour moins cher – je suis juste difficile. De mĂȘme, la note de 100 Yuans peut vous offrir Ă peu prĂšs tout, des dĂźners, des tickets de bus, des trajets en taxi, un poisson de compagnie et encore plus de biscuits Oreo! Le recto des billets de 100 Yuans de type 1999 est un portrait de … vous l’avez devinĂ© – Mao Zedong alors qu’une image de la Grande Salle du Peuple est imprimĂ©e sur le verso.
Alors, qui Ă©tait Mao Zedong?
Mao Zedong, également transcrit en tant que Mao Tse-tung, communément appelé le président Mao, était un révolutionnaire communiste chinois et le pÚre fondateur de la République populaire de Chine. Il était responsable de la politique du «Grand Bond en avant» et de la «Révolution culturelle».
J’espĂšre que cela vous a donnĂ© un aperçu de la monnaie chinoise actuelle et vous donne envie de venir en Chine et de commencer Ă dĂ©penser! Dans l’ensemble, comme mentionnĂ© dans le blog, le coĂ»t de la vie quotidienne ici est trĂšs peu coĂ»teux comparĂ© aux pays occidentaux.
Vous voulez explorer la culture de la Chine et faire des bonnes affaires ? – Postulez dĂšs maintenant pour un stage cet Ă©tĂ©.
Sources:
https://www.guilinexpat.com/guilin-facts/china-currency.html
https://www.eslhitchhiker.com/answers/china/banking-money
Note: This topic is still controversial academically
The Chinese language as we know it not only has different accents, but also different dialects. However, an interesting thing is if you are in the north and the locals speak their own dialects, you will not have too much trouble understanding them; conversely, in the south, it will feel like every dialect is a totally different language. Why is this the case? As you can see, most dialects are from the Southeast area. This answer can be dated back to 5,000 years ago.
In the first thousand year of Chinese history, only people from Chinese Plain area considered them self as Chinese, as shown above. In about 2070 B.C., Yan Di and Huang Di established China in the surrounding area around Yellow River, considered to be the beginning of Ancient Chinese language. However, if we watch a video about Ancient Chinese many find that it sounds similar to European languages. One group of scholars believe that it is because the interaction between ancient Tocharian, a group of people from west Asian, and ancient Qiang people, a group of ancient Chinese who lived to the west of Chinese Plain. Basically, some elements from Tocharian language were mixed with that of the Qiang, resulting in ancient Chinese sounding like European languages.
In the following 2,000 years, Ancient Chinese language developed steadily, and China expanded from Chinese Plain to its surrounding areas. However, two reasons contributed to the division of Ancient Chinese language. First of all, China Plain was always subject to invasions from northern areas. Thus, the Mongolian language had a huge impact on the ancient Chinese and contributed a lot to how it is spoken nowadays. Second, in order to avoid wars, between the Chinese, northern tribes, and different Chinese States, many northern people went to the south.
The north-south migration was one of the most critical contributors to the spread of Northern influences to the South. From 317 A.D.-439 A.D., northerners intruded and controlled nearly all the north part of China, including Chinese Plain, and the official Chinese government, which was called Jin Dynasty, was only on the South East Area (the light green area on the map). Because of the massive intrusion of Mongolians and other northern tribes, people in the north had to access more northern languages, and their language developed radically. However, for the people in the South, their languages were kept relative stable and only changed a little bit through the interaction with local natives, who were not considered as Chinese (not from Chinese Plain).
The South part of China and the North part were kept separated for hundreds of years until Yuan Dynasty (1271 A.D.-1368 A.D.), reuniting China under one regime. However, in the next hundreds of years, all most all the official governments were in the North. So even though most those governments set a language based on northern dialects as mandarin, the influence to the south was limited.
But interestingly we can see that there is a Southwest Mandarin. According to some scholars, it was that when the Qing Dynasty first took over the country from Ming Dynasty, people in the southwest rebelled, so the Qing Dynasty had increased control in that area and enforced mandarin education throughout the region. Research in the field of Chinese linguistics continues to produce alternative theories to date.
Interested in learning more about China’s linguistic heritage? Why not come to China! Apply now or send us an email for more information.