I had been travelling into China many times, however, late last year I got "Conned"! It's like this, usually when you exchange the foreign notes into Chinese Renminbi (RMB) they will give you bigger notes like RMB100 or RMB50. Sooo one day, I went shopping at Pearl Market in Beijing. I bought some bags and handed the lady (looked very honest) a RMB100 note. She changed back with several notes in RMB50 and, the rest in RMB10s and cents.
When I boarded a taxi and try to pay the driver with my "exchanged" RMB50 note, I was told it was a fake note!! Since last month I had been cheated twice! Probably because the Olympic 2008 is approaching and they expect more foreigners coming into the country! They can take advantage on those tourist who are not familiar with their dollars and sense!
So the lesson is when you plan to shop, make sure you change all the bigger notes to smaller notes! Preferably RMB10, because usually they prefer to counterfeit bigger notes! Also, it's worth to invest in a small torch can be used on RMB notes. You can find them everywhere in China.
If you like to shop and you can't tell the real from the counterfeit one! Carry smaller notes !! Although it's inconvenient but at least I feel better! Grrrrrr
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oso, i wud like to share this experience, ie, always insist them to show/pay u the change b4 u handing bigger notes to them. this is becos, if u hand bigger notes to them & expecting change fr them, chances are u wil get more items than u purchased as they will simply taruh items u dun want into ur bag & will not return the change to u la..!!! be smart when shopping in China ya !
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