Currency - China - 1 Yuan- Year 1999

Item Code: 155/cn-3

Images of the West Lake have appeared various times on Chinese currency. The picture of "Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon" was printed on the backs of both the foreign exchange certificate one yuan bill issued by the government in 1979 and the fifth version of RMB one yuan bill issued in 2004.

Year	1999
Obverse	Portrait of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung) (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976). Orchid. Coat of arms.
Reverse	The "Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon" depicting lanterns in water on West Lake in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang province. Signature seal.
Size	131 x 62 mm
Watermark	Orchid flower.

Obverse description

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Communist leader. He was the leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.

Mao was born on 26 December 1893 in the Hunan province of China. He grew up in a farming family, and became a Communist while working at a library. Throughout the 1920s, his power increased in the Communist Party of China, and by 1933, he was its leader. In 1923 the Communists and the Kuomintang joined together with the help of the Soviet Union. Later in the 1920s, the groups fought each other. This fight was called the Chinese Civil War. Mao said that Chiang Kai-shek was corrupt and unfit to rule China. Mao also wanted to make China follow communism, a way of thinking that opposed private property and supported common ownership.

Chiang Kai-shek's group, the Nationalists, had more fighters in 1935. They beat Mao's Communists and made them move out of the country. The Communists went to a fort that they owned, in a distant part of China called Yenan. This move was called the Long March. Mao escaped from the Nationalists with other Communists. By this time, in 1935, the Chinese Civil War caused 500,000 deaths.

When Japan invaded China in 1937, Mao and Chiang stopped fighting. The United States defeated Japan in 1945 and made the Japanese Army leave China. The Chinese Civil War had been stopped during Second Sino-Japanese War but after the war it became very violent. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists had supporters in the cities and among the middle class. Mao and the Communists had many supporters in the farms and the countryside. In those days in China there were more farmers than city people, so Mao had more supporters than Chiang, and others supported Mao because they thought Chiang's government was bad.

By 1949, Mao had chased the Nationalists to the island of Taiwan, and told the people that China would be Communist, with him as leader. Mao named the new China the People's Republic of China.

Mao Zedong declares the beginning of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949

Reverse description:

West Lake

Three Pools Mirroring the Moon in West Lake, Hangzhou, China.

West Lake is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands within the lake.

West Lake has influenced poets and painters throughout Chinese history for its natural beauty and historic relics, and it has also been among the most important sources of inspiration for Chinese garden designers. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, described as having "influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries" and reflecting "an idealized fusion between humans and nature".

പടിഞ്ഞാറൻ തടാകം അഥവാ വെസ്റ്റ് ലേക്ക് (West Lake )

ചൈനയിലെ ഹാങ്ഝൗവിൽ സ്ഥിതിചെയ്യുന്ന ഒരു ശുദ്ധജല തടാകമാണ് പടിഞ്ഞാറൻ തടാകം അഥവാ വെസ്റ്റ് ലേക്ക് (West Lake ). ഈ തടാകത്തോടനുബന്ധിച്ച് നിരവധി ക്ഷേത്രങ്ങളും, പഗോഡകളും ഉദ്യാനങ്ങളും മനുഷ്യനിർമ്മിത ദ്വീപുകളുമുണ്ട്.

ചരിത്രപ്രാധാന്യവും പ്രകൃതിസൗന്ദര്യവും കൊണ്ട് കവികളേയും ചിത്രകാരന്മാരേയും ഈ തടാകം വളരെയധികം സ്വാധീനിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. ചൈനയിലെ പ്രകൃതിചിത്രകാരനമാർക്ക് ഒരു പ്രചോദനമായിരുന്നു പടിഞ്ഞാറൻ തടാകം. 2011ലാണ് ഈ തടാകത്തിനും സമീപപ്രദേശങ്ങൾക്കും യുനെസ്കോ ലോകപൈതൃകപട്ടികയിൽ ഇടം ലഭിച്ചത്.

പടിഞ്ഞാറൻ തടാകത്തിന്റെ മൂന്ന് അതിരുകളിലും മലകളാണ്. തടാകത്തിന്റെ വടക്ക് കിഴക്കൻ അതിരിൽ ഹാങ്ഝൗ നഗരവും സ്ഥിതിചെയ്യുന്നു. താങ് രാജവംശത്തിന്റെ കാലം മുതൽക്കെ ഈ പ്രദേശത്തിന്റെ സൗന്ദര്യം വളരെയേറെ കീർത്തികേട്ടതായിരുന്നു. പിൽക്കാലത്ത് തടാകത്തെ കൂടുതൽ മനോഹരമാക്കുന്നതിനായാണ് മനു നിർമിതികൾ പണികഴിപ്പിച്ചത്. രണ്ട് സേതുവും(causeways), മൂന്ന് ദ്വീപുകളുമാണ് ഈ തടാകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ട മനുഷ്യനിർമിതികൾ.

Return to Chinese Bank Note Page