City through the haze...

Not helped by looking straight into the sun.

Today was a planning day. Last week I was able to find a travel agent in Seoul to help me with an application for a Chinese visa. It was successful and I now have the visa. And since I don't know when I'll be in this part of the world again, I want to take the opportunity to go to Japan before going to China. So I spent part of the day downloading guidebooks to both and starting to plan where I want to go and how long I might stay in Japan. (You have to have ticket to leave the country when you arrive although they don't always check.) What I can't decide is whether to fly to Beijing from Tokyo, or get another Mongolian visa and go back to Ulan Bator to get the train to Beijing to finish the rest of the trans-Mongolian railway. Flying direct to Beijing is cheaper and easier but I'd like the idea of picking up the overland route where I got stuck.

Central Korea gets a lot of fog and there was thick fog in the morning. It lifted gradually and in the afternoon my friend C and I climbed the hill near where he lives for a view over the still expanding city. It was still very hazy though.