China travel - money converter

Number one chinese travel tip. This is by far my most valuable tip for travel in China. A simple 'cheat-sheet' money converter. OK...here is the deal. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION! Go to www.oanda.com . There you will find a conversion table from one currency to another. Simply chose dollars to Chinese RMB or whatever currency is applicable for you. Print them both out. Now trim away all the paper surrounding the chart, leaving some ample margin. Put the two pieces of paper in your scanner and print them out about the size of a business card. You can make them a little bigger or smaller if you wish. I usually print out several so I can have an extra and to give a couple away. Now is where you have to be a little careful...Make a tiny roll of scotch tape about the size of the tip of your little finger. Squish it down on the back of one of the charts. Now take the other chart and place it back to back with the other one. Be very gentle as you don't really want them to stick yet. Hold them up to a bright light or daylit window. That way you can get them to be registered with each other. When they are perfectlly lined up, squish them both together. So far so good. Now hold the two VERY FIRMLY and trim them as close as you can to all applicable margins. You only want the important information. OK...now for the really kool part. Go to Kinkos or any place that does plastic laminations and get them laminated in 5 mill plastic. Heavier is OK, but not neccessary. Now trim the whole thing out and do the corners too. Thats it. BTW it cost almost nothing for this. Pretty much the same price for one as for six. Don't forget Honk Kong dollars if your passing through on your way into the PRC. This tip has proven to be the most popular advice that I have shared with other travelers. No more mental computing. You just reach into your pocket and there is all of the information you need for converting money. It is invaluable when bargaining, particularlly when you are dealling with large amounts of money. It is very quick, but allows you a nano second or two to keep your wits and calculate your negotiating strategy. Extremely handy when you are visiting several countries. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. I know you can say to yourself that you can do all this in your head, and you can if you want to. But this is better, quicker, and more accurate. You never will make a mistake. If you want to have fun with this you can cut and paste and include a picture or whatever on your cheat sheet. You can even laminate other things into your cheat sheet like currency or leaves or whatever gets your imagination or humour. You can also laminate other things. For myself I have a mini list of things in Chinese and English that I can show to someone on the street. Like "art store", "night market", "antique market", "China Mobil store", "bus station", "train station", etc., etc. BTW you can use google to translate from English to Chinese and cut and paste, or use scissors to create this little list. It can be very handy.