This is really a follow-up on a post I never wrote this summer (but there is still a chance that I will, and it will be backdated). In July I spent a couple of weeks visiting four countries in Southern Europe, provided you accept that landing in and immediately taking the bus out of Spain counts as a visit. Not a single time while going from Norway to Spain, Andorra, France or Monaco did I have to produce my passport. And as soon as I left Norway, there was only one currency that mattered: The Euro

In the last week I’ve experienced the exact opposite while visiting China

. Having finally secured a visa to visit the mainland, I spent a few days in Shanghai, spending freely of my newly acquired renmin bi (RMB), also known as yuan. No problems there, that’s part of what I enjoy about travelling, new money and new customs – in more than one sense – new food and new people. Now Shanghai is all glitzy and modern, but it is so in its own unique way. Even within a country as big as China you’d expect places to differ quite a bit
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After a few days of beers on the Bund and skyscrapers galore, I headed south towards another great collection if high-rises: Hong Kong. I only got a train ticket as far as the bordertown of Shenzhen
. And that’s where you start to get in trouble with your definitions and your various political entities. I don’t believe the Chinese call that line you cross on the water a border. After all, Hong Kong has been a part of China for 14 years now. But it also remains apart from China. Those who live in the mainland are certainly not officially referred to as foreigners, but they are visitors – as opposed to Hong Kong residents. And everyone needs to pass immigration, first out of China proper and then into the former British enclave. No visa needed this time, but an entry card and a new set of stamps in my passport. And more money. Hong Kong has kept it’s old dollar, and it is still printed by at least three different banks, at least it was when I checked my wallet just now. I’m not sure if the yuan-to-dollar rate is fixed, but it wouldn’t surprise me. So that’s two currencies. Hong Kong’s official designation as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) is the outward sign of what China launched as the doctrine of “One country, two systems” when the former colony was handed back (or handed over, depending on who you ask) in 1997.

Two years after that, another enclave was returned to Chinese rule, having been a European possession for 400-odd years. The formerly Portuguese trading port of Macau was the first and last European colony in Asia, and that’s where I headed this morning.
An hour by boat or 20 minutes by helicopter – I didn’t splurge this time – makes this a more than feasible option for a day-trip from Hong Kong

. Again, there are new stamps in your passport, new forms to fill out, but no new visa. And there’s more new money. Granted, you can use your Hong Kong dollars most places, but there is also a Macanese (I had to look that up) pataca. It’s on a par with the neighbouring dollar, but the two are not entirely interchangeable; when I paid in dollars I got my change in dollars, and when I paid in patacas I got my change in patacas.

Macau was definitely worth a visit, but that’s a different story altogether, so I’ll round off my little story about the various kinds of Chinese money by letting you know that they also have lucky money and hell money, but their value is cultural only.