You get all the way there and you see the sign. It was heartbreaking for me as I had carried my tripod all across China.

Good results can be obtained however by using a slow shutter speed, resting the camera on a ledge and keeping it steady.

I went on a sunny day in January so there may be more natural light shining through the windows when the sun is higher in the sky.

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Don't stay near the train station within the city walls; it is teaming with brothels and unsavoury characters.

Do go to the Muslim quarter for a fantastic cultural feast for your eyes and stomach. The quarter comes to life at night; go just before sundown so that you can visit the most unusual of mosques with an oriental design, hidden in a corner at the back of the main drag. Here you'll find restaurants and street hawkers and then you can bargain away in the goods market. Don't buy any warriors as they crumble before you've even got back on the plane.

By the drum tower within the city walls

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Despite promising that they will not stop at jade shops, pearl shops etc, the tours always do and you hardly have any time at the site.

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A good 90% of visitors to Xi'an come for the famed Terracotta Warriors. Don't bother. OK, do bother, it's nice to say you've seen them, but what the brochures describe as 'The Eighth Wonder of the World' is really little more than an unspectacular bunch of mannequins in a big hangar.

Once you're actually there, they just don't have the impact they have in the photos. Sorry. There's plenty other stuff in Xi'an to keep you happy instead.

By bus from the train station - quite far out from the city centre

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A lot of visitors end up negotiating their own van and guide for the day. Along the road out to the site of the Teracotta Army, many very unworthy sideshows have sprung up, including what looks like a plastic pyramid, a jade shop, and an uninspiring garden. Tour guides get paid by the attractions for each tourist they bring - our guide tried to bring us to each one along the way. They all charge an entry fee, and severely reduce the time you get to spend at the main attraction. You may need to be firm with your guide and tell them that you don't wish to see these sideshows. Wad to in the end.

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