July 10, 2008
The big image on the front page of today’s Beijing Morning Post shows an old couple proudly displaying their Olympic bank notes. The old man in the photo, a Mr. Xing, said that the members of his family—five in all—went to a bank to get the Olympic notes and it was lucky that everyone got one.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the country queued at local banks to get one of special Olympic bank notes on July 8, exactly one month before the start of the Olympic Games. Some of them waited overnight to secure a favorable place.
July 10, 2008
Their efforts may prove worth it: According to The Beijing News: the market price for the Olympic 10 yuan note now is soaring beyond 1,000 yuan each. There are rumors that such notes have been sold for one million yuan on Taobao.com, an online auction website, though how credible this kind of news is you can judge for yourself.
There are six million such Olympic bank notes released to the market and banks followed a one-per-customer policy to prevent speculation and hoarding.
- The Beijing News (Chinese): “I got one!“
- Beijing Morning Post (Chinese): Whole family rush for the Olympic note