This was my first visit to this huge and economically powerful country. I had attached myself to a group of railway photographers who had gained special access to remote regions where no conventional tour group would go (or want to!).

The talk starts by covering the main tourist sites - the Great Wall at Beijing and the Terracotta Army at Xian – before heading north-east to remote rural regions including Inner Mongolia. This is a rare glimpse of the unseen side of China where life goes on largely untouched by the immense changes seen in the big cities.