We flew into Shanghai on April 10, 2013 and spent a couple of days there. We flew from Shanghai to Yichang where we boarded a river cruise ship and powered up the Yangtze River for several very enjoyable days visiting sites along the river. We navigated the Three Gorges dam via 5 locks. We disembarked in Chongqing where we visited the zoo and giant pandas. From there we flew to Xi’ an for a stop-over to see the Terracotta Warriors and then on to Beijing and home on April 21st, 2013. Lite blue indicates air travel, dark blue is the river cruise.
Obviously when you visit a foreign country the first thing you must do is be come familiar with their monetary system. The Chinese unit of currency is the Yuan. Currently six Yuan equal one US dollar so one Yuan equals about 16.6 cents. The largest bill I saw was a 100 Yuan and the smallest coin a .5 Yuan. The only other coin I saw in circulation was a one Yuan piece. The bills are approximately the same as US bills but note the smaller the domination, the smaller the size.
Bills not to scale
US Currency was widely accepted, especially in the tourist shopping areas.