An airplane that was forced to land minutes after taking off from a Hangzhou airport suffered a malfunction in its air circulation system, China Southern Airlines said.

Flight CZ6199 was ordered back onto the tarmac at Xiaoshan Airport on Wednesday after passengers and crew members reported smoke in the cabin.

According to a post on the airline's micro blog, the smoke was vapor coming from the front of the plane and was due to a faulty air circulation machine.

All 105 passengers were put up in hotels for the night and will continue their journey on a different plane, the company said.

The flight was traveling from Daqing in Heilongjiang province to Guangzhou in Guangdong province and had been making a scheduled stop in Hangzhou.