To present children with newly printed cash as Yasuiqian, or gift money, is one ritual of Chinese in celebrating Lunar New Year.

And with Spring Festival around the corner, banks are bracing themselves for long queues of people waiting to exchange old notes for fresh ones.

"We have already had many people requesting new notes of 50 and 100 face values in the past two weeks," said Li Ruyang, a member of staff at the Shenyang sub-branch of Huaxia Bank in Liaoning Province.

"Every customer can exchange money if they want to in our bank as long as we have it."

But not all banks can provide the service as easily as Huaxia Bank.

"If someone wants to change old money for new paper bills, they need to make an appointment in advance because it is dispatched by People's Bank of China in Beijing," said Liu Jiaying, from the Shenyang sub-branch of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

"It is not an easy job to get hold of new notes because there are so many people who require it," said Wang Jian, a resident in Shenyang, who changed more than 20,000 yuan (US$ 2,500) as gift money.

Some companies are doing their best to help employees.

Xu Yan, an accountant from one local State-owned enterprise, told China Daily: "I have already exchanged a lot of money, because many members of staff in our company told me they need a great deal of new money in Spring Festival.

(China Daily January 24, 2006)