(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-29 09:31

HONG KONG - Over 200 local residents lined up outside a bank early Monday in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong to get brand-new notes, which are traditionally used for giving out lucky money at the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Some at the scene said they would follow the recent advice of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to use old notes that were just as good as the new ones while others said they wanted the plastic notes that the banks had started to issue recently.

"I arrived here at 5 a.m.," said one in the front of the line outside an office of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Mongkok in central Kowloon district.

Lucky money, known as lai-see in the Cantonese dialect, or money of good luck, has been traditionally given by the married to the single in the form of a package.

Every year 300 to 400 million new and used notes are issued to cater for demand in connection with the Chinese New Year, the Monetary Authority said recently in a statement, adding that 300 million notes would occupy 500 cubic meters of storage space and could fill 20 twenty-foot containers.

The three note-issuing banks have to arrange 500 trips with security escort to transport 300 million brand-new notes, which would take 400 tons of cotton to produce.

The Monetary Authority, which virtually served as central bank in the special administrative region, called on the public to help protect the environment by using good-as-new notes for lucky money.

"The Hong Kong Monetary Authority strongly supports environmental protection. I encourage members of the public to contribute by using the good-as-new notes for lai-see," Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Monetary Authority was quoted as saying.

Yam said he also supports government efforts to encourage the re-use of lai-see packets.

The Monetary Authority has been promoting the use of good-as-new notes for lucky money since 2006. About 162 million, or 50 percent, of the notes issued in the run-up to the last Chinese New Year were good-as-new notes, up from 53 million, or 20 percent, recorded for the previous year.

"Good-as-new notes are perfectly suitable for use as lai-see. Hong Kong's currency notes are kept very clean with dirty or torn notes being removed from circulation when they are returned to the note-issuing banks," the Monetary Authority said, adding that each year about one-third of the notes in circulation were identified as unfit for use and replaced.

The three note-issuing banks will provide sufficient new and good-as-new notes to meet demand for the Chinese New Year, the Monetary Authority said.

Ninety percent of the respondents were planning a more environmentally friendly Lunar New Year and more than 50 percent said they planned to use old lai-see packets this year, a recent survey by a local environmental group has found.