Radio Taiwan Internatinal
Date: 16 January, 2020
By: Shirley Lin

Fresh new bills for filling red envelopes at Lunar New Year[/caption] The Lunar New Year is a time of year when people and companies give out cash-filled red envelopes. But people don’t just use any money- the bills must be new ones. Not to worry if you don’t have any new bills on you- Taiwanese banks and post offices are ready to help.

Around this time every year, banks and post offices are flooded with people. That’s because of the custom of giving children and employees gifts of money for the Lunar New Year holiday. It’s an important point of etiquette that all of the bills are crisp and fresh, and so people want to exchange their old bills for new ones.

This year, 450 banks and post offices across Taiwan are ready to provide this service during the five days leading up to the holiday.

Requests to exchange NT$100 bills are common because these bills are red- a lucky color. NT$100 is around US$3.00.    [FULL  STORY]