Traditional red envelopes get a personal touch

The pieces of red paper found wrapped around yasuiqian, New Year gift money, are available in a new style this year, as name brands and families leave their mark on a traditional Chinese custom.

Companies in Guangdong province and Hong Kong traditionally hand out red envelopes to employees on the first working day after Spring Festival. Thanks to that tradition, Ruiyiju, an online store specialized in hongbao (red envelopes) on China's largest business-to-customer website, Tmall, has a big enough budget to hire its own designers to provide a customized service.

"Our biggest clients are companies," said a sales employee named Li at the Guangzhou-based online store. "They'd offer us their logos, names and preferences on design patterns in the middle of the year - usually June or July - because it would be too late if we received the order at the end of year."