We should be seeing Team GB emerge any second.

The British party, consisting of around 25-30 athletes plus its chef de mission, Georgina Harland, and support staff are indeed in the building.

Harland, a former modern pentathlete won a bronze medal for GB at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

Loving the Finnish look.

Lots of grey, something I'm familiar with after lots of bathroom tiles samples collected by my other half.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, BBC Sport

Iran's three-strong team now trotting out. The country is yet to win a medal at the Winters.

Iceland, who are in the same boat, surprisingly, follow shortly after.

Skier Arif Mohammad Khan is now up. He is India's lone participant in Beijing

Earlier on Friday India confirmed that they will not be sending any of their officials to the opening and closing ceremonies at the Games.

The US, UK and Canada along with the likes of Australia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Belgium, Denmark and Estonia had already announced diplomatic boycotts over human rights abuse.

However, India's boycott is due to a different matter and relates to one of the torchbearers being a Chinese soldier who was involved in a border clash with the India in 2020.

Image source, @Olympics

Edson Luques Bindilatti and Jaqueline Mourao, a cyclist, biathlete and cross-country skier leads out Brazil.

The 46-year-old has represented her country at three Summer Games, with this being her fifth Winter Games.

Sensational.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

British luger Rupert Staudinger was pretty keen to get to the opening ceremony even though he is racing tomorrow, telling BBC Sport: “Usually it’s a huge emotional booster and it’s a nice thing to get to.

“Because it’s the day before the race usually you’d keep it calm that day, settle down, be relaxed, try to focus on your race but I think that by attending that event it just gives a huge emotional push and it gives you something else to think about and takes away a bit of the nervosity for the next day I think.”

If he does make the journey, he’ll be having a late night because his venue in Yanqing is a good 90 minutes away by car (four hours by media bus and train but that’s another story…!).

Image source, BBC Sport

Just to whet the appetite, how about this for a cool entrance?

Talk about contrasts. Belgium's team of 19 stroll out followed by a number of Japan's 124-strong contingent.

Now then, here come the teams. Greece out first as the parade of nations gets under way.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

The Olympic Rings have emerged from the ice block!

Image source, BBC Sport

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Everyone was on their feet for the raising of the Chinese flag

Image source, BBC Sport

A giant water cube rises up from the floor and freezes into an ice block, which 24 laser beams now engrave with the names of the former host cities of the Winter Games.

National anthem time as China's flag is hoisted high inside the Bird's Nest.

Image source, Getty Images

Alpine skier Dave Ryding and curler Eve Muirhead are Team GB's flagbearers for the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

The pair will carry the union flag into the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on Friday.

Muirhead, who like Ryding made her Games debut in Vancouver in 2010, skipped the British women's rink to bronze in Sochi four years later.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

I was lucky to be here for the opening ceremony for the summer Games in 2008. Back then the Bird’s Nest was packed, with fans given various torches and other props to wave at different times during an energetic and inspiring ceremony.

It was swelteringly hot and what we witnessed was spectacular – the noise of 2,008 drummers drumming to one beat and the sheer scale of a production featuring 15,000 performers was unlike anything we’d ever seen.

This time it is different – the pandemic means a lot of empty seats, face masks as part of costumes and around 3,000 performers taking part, while the freezing temperature means it will also be a much shorter than the 4 hours and 30 minutes of the summer ceremony.

But it’s being directed by the same man as last time in film director Zhang Yimou, so it’s likely to be impressive.

Remember Pita Taufatofua, the 'Topless Tongan' from the summer and winter Olympics?

He isn't competing in Beijing but he's sent a message to the athletes and fans.

Paris 2024, here he comes...

This first segment of the opening 'the beginning of Spring' has lots of references to the number 24 in it in relation to the first of the 24 solar terms of the year and of course it being the 24th Winter Games.

BBC One

Just a quick reminder you can watch this all unfold over on BBC One right now.