Counterfeit currency

I've never been in any country before where EVERY bill is carefully scrutinized by EVERYONE. This leads me to believe that counterfeit currency is a big problem here. Everything from a RM20 (US$3) to a RM100 (US$15) is checked.

I've only changed money at two banks in China. Yesterday, a taxi driver refused to take a RM100 bill because he said it was fake. I didn't think too much of it. I gave him another bill and pocketed the rejected bill and forgot all about it. Then I went to The Bund Brewery and got the same bill returned. The bill is a little lighter in colour. I should have suspected something because there is a little smiley face stamped in the lower left corner. When I checked all of the bills that I got from the banks, I found a second bill with the same smiley face in the lower left corner, so I guess that makes two fakes. This is a little irritating because I find it hard to believe that the banks didn't catch this, but it's only US$30 so I'm not going to do anything but save them. At any rate, I'm not sure which bank gave them to me, so there isn't anything that I can do.
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Update: I was looking at all of the bills in my wallet (different denominations) and about half of them have a little smiley face (actually, on closer inspection, a smiley face with no eyes). So...I actually have no way of telling except by looking at the color, but, some of the older bills are so dirty and faded, I don't know how anyone can tell. The whole thing is quite perplexing. I'm going to keep the bill no one wants separate and hope that the second bill is fine. Hmmm.

Leaving on a jet plane

I have left Wudang Mountain. After a 20-hour train ride in a soft-sleeper berth (an oxymoron if there ever was one - with crying babies, no one gets much sleep), I arrived in Shanghai, planning to change my plane ticket and head out to Canada in a day or two only to find that it is Saturday and the Air Canada office is closed until Monday morning. I'll be at their door at 8am when they open on Monday, hoping to get a flight out on Monday afternoon.

The trains that I have taken in China have been quite nice (except for the crying babies).

When I arrived at the Bund Hotel, I found a scale in the bathroom, and I lost 13 kilograms in the past two and a half months. I am down to 83 kilograms now. That's the lightest I've been in years. I'm not sure that I like it. I've lost a lot of upper body strength, and, even though my legs are kind of wiry and strong, they are kind of skinny. As a result, I had thought a trip to The Bund Brewery for a hamburger and a couple of beers were in order this evening.

I think I'll go to the Shanghai Museum tomorrow. I've read that it has a large, impressive collection - and it's free.