Banks in Guangdong province are in urgent need of 10-, 20- and 50-yuan notes, especially new bills, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

There's a huge demand for new bills during Spring Festival because of the practice of hongbao, resulting in the shortage.

Liu Weilin, deputy director of the Guangdong branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said they had asked the central bank to assign more notes of small denomination and new bills to the province to meet this seasonal demand.