Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words people+shanghai. 2 news.

THE yuan climbed to the strongest since a link to the US dollar was scrapped two years ago after the central bank said exchange-rate flexibility will rise, spurring speculation it plans to widen the daily trading band. The yuan rose 0.3 percent to 7.3475 per US dollar at 5:30pm in Shanghai, bringing gains this month to 0.7 percent. The central bank set the reference rate at 7.3315 yesterday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The rate touched 7.3405 yesterday, the highest since the peg ended in July 2005. The People's Bank of China said in a statement last Friday that it will let the market play a bigger role in setting the exchange rate.

This is the China century," says Jim Rogers, standing amid moving boxes in his opulent Manhattan townhouse. "It's time for them to rule the roost." In fact, the 65-year-old former investment partner of George Soros and globe-circling author of Investment Biker is such a believer in the capitalist momentum of the People's Republic that he recently agreed to sell his beloved home and relocate full-time to Singapore - not quite Shanghai, but close enough to the action. It's something he's been considering at least since 2004, when Fortune last wrote about his remarkable prescience in championing a China-driven, worldwide commodities boom. His new book, A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market (Random House, $26.95), is a how-to guide for investors interested in following him to the Far East. Fortune interrupted his packing for a chat about China, commodities, and the teetering U.S. economy.