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)