Beijing, China
Well, things are moving quickly. I've got BOTH visas and have thus been able to plan the remainder of my travels. The Russians tried a final act of sabotage (and no, I'm not becoming paranoid!) when I went to collect my visa. They decided that they did want to see my rail tickets after all. But I was on to them and produced the tickets in a flash, so they were forced to concede and hand over the visa! The Mongolians were as helpful, friendly and unobstructive as ...