If you prefer VNC you can use 'x11vnc' as server and 'vncviewer' as client. Just find out in what packages they are ('x11vnc' and 'tightvnc' for arch linux).
For instance, how I used it:
I had PC (192.168.1.5) with X11 session running at display :0, sshd and x11vnc installed.
On laptop I run:
> ssh -t -L 5900:localhost:5900 192.168.1.5 'x11vnc -localhost -forever -scale 800x600 -unixpw -display :0'
.....
and from another tty (I use gnu screen. If you know how to properly redirect it to /dev/null or to some log file, tell me
I had faults with it)
> vncviewer -compresslevel 1 -quality 5 -encodings "tight copyrec" localhost:0