Yuan's rising popularity helps to boost cross-border trade volume

On the morning of Nov 6, four vans owned by the Shenzhen Vpower Finance Security Co waited outside the vault of the People's Bank of China's sub-central branch in Shenzhen, in southern China's Guangdong province. The vans, made from reinforced metal and modified to carry cash and gold, were waiting to carry 280 million yuan ($44 million) in 100 yuan bills to the PBOC's storage facility in Hong Kong.

Small forklift trucks took less than 10 minutes to transfer the notes to the waiting vans. The bills are never seen during the storage and transportation process, but are kept in sealed red boxes, the same color as the notes, to avoid putting temptation in anyone's way. To the workers, the boxes don't contain money, just "special pro-ducts" produced and distributed by the central bank.

The workers checked the boxes and then loaded them into the vans; it was tiring work because each box weighed 26 kg.