SHOTLIST 1. Wide exterior of new United States Embassy compound in Beijing 2. Close of US emblem on wall of consular building 3. Security guard standing near pond inside embassy compound 4. Various of "Tulips" sculpture by artist Jeff Koons in pond 5. Close of consular building reflected in sculpture 6. US Ambassador to China, Clark Randt, talking to reporters 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Clark Randt, US Ambassador to China: "This spectacular new embassy complex will provide the United States government with a platform appropriate for the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century, the United States-China relationship." 8. Tilt up from bamboo garden to chancery building in embassy complex 9. Wide of outside walkway running through embassy compound 10. Wide of interior atrium office building 11. Construction workers looking though window inside atrium office building 12. Tilt down of interior atrium office building 13. Wide pan of interior of consular building 14. SOUNDBITE (English) Jay Holleran, Project Architect on new US Embassy Beijing: "Given the current security environment that we are in, it's expensive to use this amount of glass, because we need to design it in such a way that it resists a car bomb attack, and other sorts of hostile actions." 15. Various exteriors of embassy compound STORYLINE Officials unveiled the new United States embassy in Beijing to the media on Tuesday, just four days ahead of the embassy's official opening. Its size is a testament to the US's expanding relationship with China. Set on 10 acres (four hectares) in a new diplomatic zone, the 434 (m) million US dollar, 500-thousand-square-foot (46-thousand-square-metre) compound is second in size only to the one in Baghdad. The eight-story main building, wrapped in an outer envelope of freestanding transparent and opaque glass, was designed with traditional Chinese elements in mind. Narrow walkways lined with bamboo link diplomatic "neighbourhoods." US President George W. Bush, who will be attending the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies on Friday - the same day the embassy opens - will preside over the ribbon-cutting. "This spectacular new embassy complex will provide the United States government with a platform appropriate for the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century, the United States-China relationship," US Ambassador to China, Clark Randt, told reporters on Tuesday. China unveiled its own imposing new embassy in Washington, D.C., last week. The 250-thousand-square-foot (23-thousand-square-meter) glass and limestone compound, designed by I.M. Pei's two sons, is the largest foreign embassy in the US capital. The new US embassy will have space for 700 staffers and more than 20 federal agencies. Having long outgrown its original space, the current embassy is spread out in more than a dozen locations across Beijing. The new embassy is already projected to be too small. Work will begin soon on a 70-thousand-square-foot (6,500-square-metre) annex for another 230 staffers and 10 more agencies. Lack of funding during most of the 1990s delayed plans for the new embassy, officials said. However, following the deadly 1998 bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the US began to secure and upgrade embassies worldwide. Violent protests outside the Beijing embassy after the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 spurred plans to move the embassy to a safer location with a 100-foot (30-meter) security setback, officials said. Under the Bush administration, China has been treated as an important alley that can partner with the United States on global issues such as nuclear non-proliferation and climate change, analysts have said. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4d5307c4143317ee3a18700e551655e6 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

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