Tuesday was the birthday of the euro. At 9 o'clock on Tuesday
morning when people in the 12 countries of the "eurozone" were
asleep, a Chinese man named Bo Zhengfeng withdrew 10,000 euros in
cash from a
Bank of
China (BOC) branch in Beijing.
He
may have been the first one to withdrew euros in Beijing and have
had euro notes in his pocket before many Europeans.
"I
came early just because I have to leave Beijing this afternoon and
wanted to have the money before leaving," Bo said. He withdrew euro
notes in 5 to 500 denominations.
"I
will keep some as souvenirs, and it is a pity that they didn't have
coins," he said.
Tuesday was a public holiday in Beijing, and few financial business
were open. However, the clerks of this BOC branch worked overtime
last night in preparation for the euro issue.
"Last night was the first time I had touched euro notes," said a
bank clerk surnamed Liu at the branch.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, China's financial center, some 33 million
euros has been put into circulation to meet the needs of the 139
BOC branches in Shanghai and other east China cities, as well as
seven other Shanghai commercial banks.
According to the European Central Bank, euros replaced the
currencies of the 12 countries in the eurozone in China from 8 a.m.
today.
Major Chinese banks have used euros for accounting, and expressed
their businesses related to "eurozone" countries both in the old
money and the new one in the past three years. This year, they made
preparations for the introduction of the euro, including updating
computer systems and giving special training to their
employees.
The three big state-owned commercial banks here had exchanged the
old money in the accounts for euros by Tuesday, and started to
provide banking services in the new currency in their branches
nationwide.
As
the old money of the 12 European countries will be abolished, they
are popular with coin collectors. Coins that had seldom been seen
before, such as those of Greece, Portugal and Finland, are in big
demand.
The Beijing Morning Post quoted a dealer in Beijing's coin market
as saying that he has been earning over 1,000 yuan a day
recently.
The demand for euros in China is expected to rise. Last year, about
300,000 Chinese had been to Europe, and the number will increase as
more and more people will opt for studying or spending their
holidays there.
Moreover, the country has made great efforts to improve its
economic cooperation and trade with Europe. The European Union has become the
second-largest import market and fourth-biggest export market for
China. Investment from there accounts for nine per cent of the
country's total foreign investment.
(China
Daily January 2, 2002)