Around 240km west of Wuhan, China on the highway to Yichang - or the best part of a day upstream by ferry from Chibi - JINGZHOU SHI lies on the north bank of the Yangzi, also where the Wuhan-Yichang expressway joins the highway heading up to Xiangfan in northern Hubei. Wherever you're heading, the city is a good place for a brief stop: while the easterly section of Shashi is an indifferent modern port, the Jingzhou district, 10km west, is ringed by around 8km of moats and well-maintained, seven-metre-high battlements , built by the Three Kingdoms' hero Guan Yu, who commanded Shu's eastern defences here. Even earlier, the now vanished city of Jinan , immediately north of Jingzhou, was the capital of the state of Chu until its destruction by the Qin armies around 278 BC.

From Shashi's long-distance bus station on Taqiao Lu , catch city bus #1, which runs west into Jingzhou through the East Gate , trundles down past Jingzhou's own long-distance bus station on Jing Nan Lu, turns in to Jingzhong Lu , and finally terminates by the west gate . Walls aside, there's not much to be impressed with in this forty-minute trawl, but walk 100m back along Jingzhong Lu from the bus stop and you'll be outside Jingzhou Museum (Tues-Sun 8am-4pm; ¥8). Skip the lifeless main building, full of dusty cases of unidentified pots and blurred photos, and instead walk around to the back, where another ¥8 gets you in to the "Treasure Display" (same hours), a fantastic collection of Western Han tomb remains . These were found a few kilometres north at Fenghuang Shan , the site of the Chu capital, Jinan, which former residents turned into a cemetery after the city's destruction in order to be buried alongside their ancestors. More than 180 tombs dating from the Qin era to the end of the Western Han (221 BC-24 AD) have been found, an impressive range for a single site; the exhibition here focuses on Tomb 168, that of a court official named Sui . In many regards similar to Wuhan's provincial museum - the house-like sarcophagi and copious lacquerwork, for example - the bonus here is Sui's astoundingly well-preserved corpse , along with some comfortingly practical household items and wooden miniatures of his servants - either he wasn't powerful enough to have his real attendants buried with him, or else this trend had gone out of style. Three Kingdoms aficionados should go next door to Kaiyuan Guan , a tiny, elderly temple dedicated to Guan Yu set amongst overgrown gardens.

Moving on , there are buses both ways along the expressway until early evening from either Jingzhou's or Shashi's long-distance bus stations, with at least eight additional services north to Xiangfan through the day. There's also accommodation (¥30-100) in the vicinity of either bus station if you get caught here for the night.