Sino-Australian relations under Rudd and Gillard: a quick glance over the shoulder and peek around the corner

My two jiaos worth

I find myself this week facing a problem with the Chinese currency.

The issue is not the controlled exchange rate, which is very much in my favour, but what seems to be an unnecessary proliferation of jiao notes. The jiao (mao in spoken Mandarin) is an intermediate unit in the RMB currency system; ten fen make a jiao, ten of which make a Yuan (usually spoken kuai).

Over two weeks in Beijing I have accumulated such a stack of these tattered, world-worn lolly wrappers that I’ve had to take them out of my wallet so I can close it. I’m going to have to think of a disposal strategy.

It is difficult to avoid amassing such a collection; practically every taxi driver and shop attendant is determined to give them too you. Even in this most developed part of China cash is still king.

Down and out in Beijing

It is said politics is the art of managing expectations and managing the aspirations and expectations of this brood of individually self-conscious youngsters maybe the biggest challenge the Chinese government will face in the coming decades.

Week 1 in China, the land with 5000 years of civilisation where: