Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 596 Foreign Exchange Certificates

Xiao Wei said, "It's so far, several thousand kilometers away. Twelve days isn't slow. Anyway, it'll take us about ten days to get back."

Xiao Hong said, "Huh? We're going to stay in Guangzhou for so long? What are we going to do?"

Xiao Wei said, "Let's take a look around. The commerce here is much more developed than back home. Let's learn something. After that, aren't we going to Chongqing? That'll take several days, won't it? And there's Beidaihe too."

Xiao Hong thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Okay, that's about right."

Because Ferrari staff were coming over in the afternoon, the four of us didn't go anywhere else. We just strolled around the hotel area, where there were Friendship Stores, shopping malls, and some privately owned shops.

Friendship Store was a product of a special period, modeled after the Little Birch Store in Soviet Russia. It was a place specifically for foreigners and privileged individuals. In that era of scarcity, it had goods from all over the world. Color TVs, refrigerators, Moutai liquor, Swiss watches, bicycles, gold jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc., which were usually hard to buy with coupons, were all readily available here.

This was also a place where the country earned foreign exchange. Renminbi couldn't be used here; foreign exchange certificates were required. The People's Bank of China printed a special kind of currency specifically for places like Friendship Stores, issued to foreign nationals in China. This currency was equivalent to Renminbi and was called a foreign exchange certificate. Interestingly, in 80, the largest denomination of Renminbi was ten yuan, while foreign exchange certificates came in fifty and one hundred yuan denominations.

Foreign exchange certificates with denominations of fifty and one hundred are currently popular collectibles.

At that time, in order to earn foreign exchange, a dual-track foreign exchange system was implemented. The official exchange rate was more than five yuan to one US dollar, ranging from five yuan two to five yuan seven, but in the foreign exchange market it was close to nine yuan.

A number of people squatted outside the Friendship Store, exchanging foreign exchange certificates. They carried military-style satchels, smoked cigarettes, and sized up passersby. If someone looked into the store, they would ask, "Want some foreign exchange certificates?" They offered very low prices: ten foreign exchange certificates for ninety yuan.

Although the Friendship Store had a wide variety of goods, the prices were relatively high. At that time, most of the goods exported by our country were sold at a loss due to currency exchange rates, and only the Friendship Store could make a profit. Foreigners had no choice; they couldn't buy things in ordinary stores, so they had to pay high prices to buy them here.

Then a privileged class would also buy things here, because everything was available without limits. As for why it was a privileged class? Where could ordinary people get foreign exchange? Then foreign exchange certificates became hot commodities, and people with some ability tried every means to acquire them. The black market grew larger and larger, and many shrewd foreigners no longer went to the officially designated places to exchange foreign exchange, but went to the black market instead.

Back then, the saleswomen at the Friendship Store were incredibly impressive. They were all tall, beautiful women, handpicked and made up with specially approved imported cosmetics. They wore white collared shirts, red vests, and red bow ties, and spoke fluent English. Their vests had name tags sewn onto the right breast and small metal national emblem badges on the left. They were incredibly stylish.

The four men went inside and looked around, but their money wasn't very useful, so they sheepishly came out again. A guy at the door smiled and asked, "Want to exchange some foreign exchange certificates? Chinese money doesn't work here."

Xiao Wei glanced at the man and asked, "A northerner?" His Mandarin was quite good; you could tell he was from the north just by listening to him.

The guy stood up, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and said, "Hey, from northern Hebei, where are you guys from?"

Xiao Wei said, "We're from Northeast China, how do we exchange this?"

The guy said, "It's three to one, but we're both from the north, so I'll give you a two to one ratio, how about that?"

Back then, foreigners had to exchange their currency for foreign exchange certificates at designated locations; ten US dollars could be exchanged for over fifty foreign exchange certificates. Scalpers would exchange RMB for foreign exchange certificates from foreigners, giving them eighty RMB for fifty foreign exchange certificates, and then resell the certificates to Chinese people at double their face value, making a considerable profit. The police made a fortune catching these currency scalpers.

Xiao Liu coughed, took out a cigarette, and said to Xiao Wei, "Can I borrow your lighter?"

Xiao Wei took out a lighter and handed it to Xiao Liu, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, my friend is coming over this afternoon, I'll get some with him, your place is too expensive."

The guy's eyes lit up: "Dude, you can get your hands on this stuff? Hey, get a lot, I'll trade you 1.6 for it, okay?"

Xiao Hong thought for a moment and said in surprise, "You guys make so much money?"

The guy chuckled and said, "It'll do, it'll do, just enough to make a living. Seriously, buddy, can you handle this? This price is definitely not low."

Xiaowei asked Xiaohong, "Should we go back or wander around some more?"

Xiao Hong checked the time and said, "I left my room number. Why don't we go back? We don't have any way to contact you. If someone comes to our house, they won't be able to find us."

The guy said, "Dude, I'll give you ninety, okay? Fifty for ninety, that's the highest price, there's no higher price on the market, is that alright?"

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "Forget it, I'm not interested in this." He turned to leave, but the guy in a hurry reached out to grab him. Xiao Liu blocked him, pulled out his police ID, flashed it in front of him, and asked, "You think you're so great?"

The guy's face turned pale, and he turned and ran. There was a commotion around him, and about ten people ran away. Xiao Hong watched and started to laugh.

After turning back onto the hotel and entering the main gate, Xiao Liu said, "There were two plainclothes officers nearby just now, probably catching people scalping currency. If you had switched places with them, we wouldn't be able to leave. Scalping foreign exchange is a serious crime, and we would have been in trouble."

Xiao Wei said, "Really? I didn't realize. If you hadn't been so aggressive, I might have switched places with him."

Xiaohong said, "You said you were making it up about finding a friend to swap with? I thought it was true, and I was wondering who to ask. You guys think really fast."

Xiao Wei said, "That's right. Ferrari's people came over this afternoon, so let them help us change some."

Xiao Liu said, "Let's get some more, let's get some too."

Xiao Hong rolled her eyes and said, "You just said it was illegal, but knowingly breaking the law is an even more serious crime."

Xiao Liu chuckled and said, "These things are hard to get. Exchanging them on the black market is too expensive, so I might as well get some since I have the chance. We're not breaking the law by asking someone to exchange them for us, we're not reselling them."

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, let's change it. I'll buy Xiao Hong a watch. I saw a nice watch earlier, and some jewelry too. Xiao Hong doesn't seem to have any jewelry."

Little Hong, her face flushed, leaned against Xiao Wei.

At 1 p.m., Ferrari representatives drove from Hong Kong Island to the White Cloud Hotel. They weren't restricted from driving over there; they just needed to register at the border.

(End of this chapter)