This is a compelling narrative of a long train journey and an illuminating insight from the shadows of the past, descending from the mountains, the unbroken silence of the forest, intertwined with the people who shaped historical events along the route.

From the former Tsarist Russian capital of St. Petersburg, this 10,000 kilometre railway odyssey terminates in the great metropolis of Shanghai. Allowing for stop-overs in Moscow and Irkutsk, this journey will take me along the world's longest railway line, itself an extraordinary achievement by the thousands of men who carved this track through a hostile environment, using only the technology of the 19th century. Things may come and things may go, but the Trans-Siberian rolls on forever.

After the endless Siberian taiga, the journey continues along the majestic southernmost shore of Lake Baikal, the blue eye of Siberia to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia. Then through the wilderness of the Gobi Desert and up to the Great Wall of China at Beijing. From the current Chinese capital, it is then on to Xi'an, the ancient capital to see Emperor Qin's mighty terracotta army, before finally reaching Shanghai.