A Note on Numbers

The Chinese numbering system is based on power 4 multiples rather than power 3 multiples as in English. For example, instead of thousand, million, billion (i.e. 10 power 3, power 6 and power 9), in Chinese 10,000 is 万， 100，000，000 is 亿 and so on. This is fine for small numbers but quickly becomes a pain when converting pounds into yuan and vice-versa, and trying to figure out, say, house prices.