Walking the Path

After five years in China there is one thing I don’t understand, Chinese store keepers reluctance to change 100 kaui notes. This morning I paid for my RMB 20 breakfast with a 100 kaui note. The waitress response was “YI bai kuai ayah!” It was like I presented her with an impossibly large amount of money. She did change though without much fuss which is more than I can say for the ayi at my local C-store.

I could see this if the notes were rare, but this is the standard denomination of notes that you get when you go to any ATM in China. It’s the equivalent of getting CDN$20 from an ATM in Canada. You would think that stores would be prepared to change a 100 kaui note because of this. And I think the worst thing is that I will buy more things sometimes to get around the store keeper’s whining particularly if it is an old lady as she seems to make feel as though I am personally responsible for the Opium Wars and the century of humiliation the Chinese endured just because I brought a 100 kaui note with me.

Any one else experience this?

J.