Ordinary American citizens can for the first time invest in the yuan, China's currency, through Bank of China's branches in the U.S.

Below are the U.S. locations of Bank of China:

410 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Tel: 212-935-3101

42 East Broadway

New York, NY 10002

Tel: 212-925-2355

444 South Flower St., 39th Fl

Los Angeles, CA 90071

Tel: 213-688-8700

Website: www.bocusa.com

Email: service_us@bank-of-china.com

For retail customers, only the two New York branches offer yuan services. In addition, it only serves customers from the Great New York Metropolitan Area.

For corporate customers, yuan service is available at all branches and limited to the local areas they serve (the Greater New York and Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.)

Once customers open an account, they can convert up to $4,000 to yuan per day and $20,000 to yuan per year. Alternatively, for walk-in customers, they can provide their social security number, IDs, and their daily limit is $2,000 and their annual limit is $10,000.

Why is the yuan an attractive investment for Americans?

At a recent presentation in Chicago, investor Jim Rogers said it provides almost sure profits over the next five to 10 years, according to Bloomberg.

For one, the yuan is universally considered undervalued. Two, the Chinese government -- because of pressures from the U.S. government and other reasons -- will allow it to appreciate.

The only question, it seems, is the pace of the appreciation.

This type of situation is what traders in the old days used to call one-way bets, meaning although the timing and magnitude of the move is unknown, the direction of it is pretty certain.

California New York