But what if it's more than 10 yuan?

• Anger over card tricks
  WHAT can 10 yuan (US$1.2) buy for an ordinary person today? A boxed lunch, a tube of toothpaste or a taxi-ride from People's Square to the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Xilu.
• Paying for trouble
  THE People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, says that at the end of last year about 650 million bank cards were in circulation throughout the country, a rise of 24 per cent on the previous year.
• `Qian zhuang' in feudal China
  THE modern banks in China evolved from the imperial societies' "qian zhuang" or "piao hao" (currency stores).

• Over 100 killed in southern Thailand violence
  BANGKOK - More than 100 people were killed on last Wednesday in dawn clashes between black-clad young men and security forces in Thailand's restive Muslim south when armed gangs raided police posts in a sharp escalation of four months of violence.
• World comes together to help DPRK
  PYONGYANG - Many countries have offered aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) after a train explosion last Thursday claimed 161 lives and injured more than 1,300. The DPRK's official news agency, KCNA, said early this week that the blast caused about US$356 million in damage.
• Sovereignty without authority
  A government that can't pass laws, a nation that doesn't control its own armed forces. Many of Iraq's US-picked leaders wonder just how sovereign a state Washington will give them on June 30.

• Questionable table manners
  OK. I'm all for dining out at unusual and off-beat restaurants and it's nice to be in the company of a bright, pretty young woman when you're enjoying an evening's cuisine.
• West meets East can be bad for business
  Recently, four top officials working for the Chinese subsidiary of Lucent Technologies Inc were dismissed. They included one president and three other executives. It was certainly a piece of shocking news in the business arena. But the two times I read about it, the story was not in the business section but in the national news section. Is it really worth all the trouble to publicize some individual dismissals as well as the establishment of national hotlines and stories about the convictions of some corrupt bureaucrats?
• Life is as easy as you live it
  How do you cope when things are not going so well? When you are facing an impossible situation that human strength alone cannot overcome, you'd better face up to it and accept the world as it is. Instead of blaming fate or other people, make the best use of the situation which you find yourself in and get more fun out of life with the strength of your wisdom.
• Parents, your only child needs real care
  Every February and March you can see thousands of students and their parents crowding the gates of China's four top movie and drama institutes with dreams of becoming a superstar.
• You can bank on not getting a loan
  A friend of mine is desperate. He has been talking in vain with every bank in Shanghai attempting to get a loan to buy a car. It's an unusual case covered by the special policy for returned students from overseas. He will buy a car from the car manufacturer in Hubei Province rather than from a local dealer.
• Letters
  Have a 'real' holiday