Currency

The Chinese Yuan, denoted by CNY, is the official currency in China. Yuan in Chinese literally means a "round object" or "round coin" and is thus considered the base unit of a currency (for example, U.S. dollar is Mei yuan). From an international perspective, Yuan as an English word refers to the Renminbi (RMB¥, CN$). 

When pronounced correctly, the word "yuan" should sound like the English word "wren". One yuan is divided into 10 jiao or mao. One mao is divided into 10 fen. In Cantonese, jiao and fen are called ho and sin. 

The renminbi is the legal tender in mainland China and is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the People's Republic of China. Although the official ISO code is CNY, the currency is also commonly abbreviated "RMB." 

China's currency was once tightly pegged at 8.28 renminbi to one US dollar, making one yuan worth about twelve cents, and one jiao (or ten fen) worth about one cent. However, on July 21, 2005, China ended its decade old peg to the dollar to let the yuan fluctuate versus a basket of currencies