Hello. We havent done very much of note today... the visa problems are ongoing - went to the embassy again this morning and spoke to a diplomat, but nothing new. Looks like leaving Russia ealier than planned but not to worry.

Made our day to 'Cultural street' - not much doing, it isnt really tourist season, so not very much to see. Walked and saw 2 big parks, but had to be back at the hostel for 5 for the first meeting of the tour. Thats it really. Its very cold and it takes quite a lot of willing to venture far! Will be going for some dinner later though, hoping to have some duck again, to compare!

We had our meeting and met our Honcho for Beijing, her name is Tracy and she is very nice and helpful. There are just 5 of us on the tour, Daniel and Violet from Melbourne and Killian from Dublin. They all seem nice and Tracy suggested we all go out for dinner. She took us to a lovely restaurant and we had a banquet! Kung Po chicken, Peking Duck, Duck Soup, an eggplant dish, garlic broccolli and honey beef with tomato, they were all really really tasty and it was good to get to try all the different dishs and all for just 58Y each! Came back to the hotel to print out some stuff for Claire's visa and email, but the business centre had closed, we tried to find an internet cafe, but no luck. Went to bed very sleepy.