The construction gang building one of the most elegant embassies in the US capital will spend their free time in decidedly more down-market digs.
In January, Beijing booked an entire 195-room motel in Washington's crime-ridden northwest. The Days Inn Washington Gateway motel normally houses working-class families from New Jersey or discount tours from Ohio. But for the next 21/2 years, it will be used to house and feed up as many as 400 Chinese labourers.
The motel's website says 'the National Arboretum is just across the street from the hotel', but neglects to mention that the street is a four-lane expressway, the main artery into Washington from New York. Just metres behind it is the main national railway line that links Boston and New York to Washington.
Two centuries ago, Napoleon Bonaparte declared: 'When China awakes, the world will tremble.' But when the Chinese workers drop into their beds at night, the trembling they feel won't be the world's awe. It will be the floors of their tiny rooms - as the New York-Florida trains race past each night, every hour, starting at 3am.