Luxury cars parked outside the Dragon Sports Center in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Southeast Express]

A Chinese company has spent 23 million yuan on a New Year party including rewarding its best employees with luxury cars.

The company, selling goods for daily use in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, spent the huge amount to reward staff for their hard work including hiring singers and hosts for the evening's entertainment and broadcasting live pictures via satellite, Fuzhou-based Southeast Express newspaper reported Monday.

Bosses also parked 26 Mercedes-Benz cars and 14 BMWs, worth around 400,000 yuan each, outside the venue in Hangzhou to give away to its best performing sales people.

More than 12,000 people were invited to the gala which was held in three stadiums in Hangzhou, 180 km away from Ningbo.