General Facts about China

It is wise to carry your passport with you at all times in China, as you need it to register in Hotels, buy plane tickets and change money.

Camera, portable tape-recorder, portable cinecamera, portable video-camera, and portable computer.

Passengers carrying personal items over this limit should declare accurately to the Customs and fulfill all necessary customs formalities.

Passengers should declare to the Customs if the amount of gold, silver and other ornaments made thereof they are carrying exceeds 50 grams. Any consignment for expo9rt of gold, silver and ornaments made thereof (including handicrafts of inlaid goldware and silverware) purchased in the territory shall only be allowed with special invoices issued by the People's Bank of China.

Culture relics intended for export shall be sent in advance to the cultural administrative department for verification. The Customs shall release them on the basis of authentic marks affixed on the works by the cultural administrative departments and invoices for permitting cultural relics out of the territory, or export license.

Prohibited imports:

• Arms, imitation arms, ammunition and explosives of all kinds;
• Counterfeit currency and counterfeit negotiable securities;
• Printed matter, films, photos, gramophone records, cinematographic films, loaded recording tapes and video-tapes, compact discs (video & audio), storage media for computers and other articles which are detrimental to the political, economic, cultural and moral interests of China;
• Deadly poisons of all kinds;
• Opium, morphine, heroin, marihuana and other addiction inducing or hallucinatory drugs;
• Animals, plants and products made thereof infected with or carrying disease, insect pests and other harmful organisms;
• Foodstuffs, medicines and other articles coming from epidemic-stricken areas and harmful to humans and livestock, or those capable of spreading diseases.

Prohibited exports:

• All articles enumerated as articles prohibited from import;
• Manuscripts, printed matter, films, photos, gramophone records, cinematographic films, loaded recording tapes and video-tapes, compact discs (video & audio), storage media for computers and other articles which involve state secrets;
• Valuable cultural relics and other relics prohibited from export;
• Endangered and rare animals, plants (including their specimens) and their seeds or reproducing materials.

You can exchange traveler's checks or cash at most banks and hotels. You can also get a cash advance on your American Express card, but for this you need to go to the Bank of China head-quarters. To change money, you have to have your passport at hand. If you want to change money in a hotel, you usually have to be a guest there. At present, the RMB is not exchangeable on the international market, so it is only usable within the country. So when you are changing money, don't change too much, because it is difficult to change back into other currencies. To change RMB back into your home currency, you must retain the exchange slip0s that are given to you at the bank or money exchange counter. Then when you want to go home, you have to bring the slop-s with you to prove that you are merely changing back money you haven't spent instead of taking out needed foreign exchange. If you lose the slips, you can change on the black market (locations vary, ask a Chinese friend for details), but the exchange rate is not so good, and of course it is illegal.

The official currency in China is the Renminbi (RMB). The basic unit is the yuan, which equals 10 jiao, which is then divided into 10 fen. Paper jiao come in denominations of 1,2, and 5. As for coins, there are 1 yuan, 1 and 5 jiao, and 1, 2, and 5 fen.

Visitors are only allowed to bring in or take out 6,000 RMB.