| 10 years ago, I lived and worked in Dalian. The people there used to fold ten little 1 mao paper money bills into a litttle flower shape that was worth 1 yuan total. Everybody used these and passed them around as normal money, and sometimes they would even stop and comment how nicely the little flower had been folded. I always was suspicious that someday some bad guy would use 8 mao instead of 10 mao to make the flower and thereby cheat everyone out of 2 mao. But of course, if nobody ever bothered to unfold the little flower, then nobody would ever know. (That probably says something about paper money in general, i.e. it is all based on a system of "confidence" because everyone knows the paper money only represents value). I wonder if this "flower money" is still being used in Dalian or if it was ever the habit to do this in other cities in China. At the time, I traveled all over China and did not ever see this anywhere except in Dalian. |
Coins are Popular in Shanghai