For Chinese tourists that are supposed to take a visa waived tour to Russia, they will have to wait for a while before the visa waive policy can be implemented.

For the policy to take effect, Chinese travel agencies organizing outbound tours will have to sign an agreement with 17 Russian local travel agencies and the work has not been finished yet, several travel agencies in Beijing said on Thursday.

Last month, Russian opened to China as tourist destination. According to relative agreement, Chinese tourists who sign up in a group tour that are over five people will no longer have to run the visa application.

However, the policy is possible only if Chinese travel agencies signed an agreement with 17 Russian travel agencies that are designated to handle such tours. According Sun Changwei, manager of the outbound department of China Youth Travel Service, the signing of the agreement work was still in process.

"If there is no unexpected incidence, we can organize visa waived tours in early Spring next year," he said.

(Chinanews.cn September 23, 2005)