This year Chen Qi had two big things on his plate.
One was the inland pilot project, the other was breaking into Hollywood.
The Hong Kong delegation had finished its meetings in the capital, and on the surface there didn’t seem to be much fallout.
But Chen Qi knew better — the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Culture, China Film Group, the Guangdong provincial government, the provincial film company and others had surely already had preliminary talks.
He had no doubt about the Guangdong authorities’ guts.
After the reform and opening up, Guangdong’s economy had surged.
Trade boomed, but the currency system couldn’t keep up — the largest banknote denomination was only ten yuan.
Many businesses were doing transactions with big sacks of cash.
Cash supplies in Guangdong were tight; bank vaults were often emptied.
To deal with this problem, this year Guangdong issued something called “bank drafts.”
They came in 50 and 100 denominations.
Equal in value to the renminbi, but limited for use within the province.