Convert an amount into Chinese capital numerals for a cheque, with the zero, tens and 整 rules applied properly rather than by substitution.

Why 大寫 exists

一, 二 and 三 are one, two and three horizontal strokes. With a pen, 一 becomes 二 becomes 三 in a moment, and 十 becomes 千 with barely more effort.

So any amount written that way on a cheque can be raised by whoever holds it. 大寫 uses characters chosen because they cannot be extended into one another: 壹貳參肆伍陸柒捌玖, with 拾佰仟萬億 for the units.

This is a legal requirement on cheques and contracts throughout the Chinese-speaking world, and getting it wrong can invalidate the instrument.

The rules a substitution table gets wrong

Most converters map digits to characters and stop. These are the rules that actually govern the form:

Zeros collapse to one 零. 1,002 is 壹仟零貳 — one 零, not two, however many zeros there are. 10,001 is 壹萬零壹.

Trailing zeros take no 零 at all. 100 is 壹佰, not 壹佰零.

The tens place keeps its 壹. Everyday Chinese writes 十五 for fifteen. The banking form is 壹拾伍, because a bare 拾 sits at the start of the amount where something could be added in front of it. This is the rule most often copied wrongly from conversational usage.

Grouping is by four digits, not three. 萬 is 10,000 and 億 is 100,000,000, so the natural break is every fourth digit, not every third as in Western notation. This is the structural difference and the source of most implementation bugs — 12,345,678 is 壹仟貳佰參拾肆萬伍仟陸佰柒拾捌.

A small group after a large one needs a 零. 100,000,001 is 壹億零壹. Without the 零 it reads as something else entirely.

元, 圓, and closing with 整

The currency form appends the unit and then closes the amount:

整 goes at the end when there are no fractional units. It means “exactly”, and its real job is to occupy the space where a forger would add 角 or 分.
角 is a tenth and 分 a hundredth. 12.34 is 壹拾貳元參角肆分.
A missing 角 still takes its 零. 12.05 is 壹拾貳元零伍分 — without the 零, 伍分 could be read as 伍角.

元 or 圓 are both correct. 圓 is the older and more formal character and is what many banks print; 元 is the everyday form and is universally accepted. Taiwan and Hong Kong tend towards 圓 on formal instruments. The option is here because your bank’s form may show one or the other.

Writing the cheque

Beyond the numerals themselves: write the amount with no gaps, start hard against the left of the line, and put the currency name in front of it (人民幣 / 新臺幣 / 港幣) if the form does not already. Empty space on the amount line is the vulnerability the whole convention exists to close.

Nothing is uploaded

Converted in this page. An amount you are about to write on a cheque is not something to hand to a server.