Chinese Labourers Digging Ww1. Trenches In France & Belgium ?

[Dinger2]

Reading the articles in the Daily Mail magazine in the last two weeks (as it's the 100th anniversary of WW.1. soon) I was astounded to read that the M.O.D used 100,000 Chinese labourers to dig the trenches in France &Belgium ! my questions are, Where did they get the Chinese labourers from ?--- Were they paid ? --- Was this done before the fighting ''kicked off''?and if so were they protected by the army?--- Who did the Germans use to dig their trenches ?

[hc4361]

Great info here:
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/12/04/the-forgotten-trench-diggers-of-the-western-front-meet-ww1s-chinese-labour-corps/

They got them from China and they were paid.

[Buenchico]

Wikipedia to the rescue. perhaps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Labour_Corps