Well, we survived the 12 hour flight. Minor incidents when the two young Chinese boys in front of us efficiently discovered the recline option on their chairs, but we tuned into 4 movies and endured. Our flight was air Canada, and we departed at about 2pm Vancouver time, and we arrived in Beijing at 4pm china time. We were picked up at the airport by victor, our prearranged driver. We found him in the mob of guides and drivers by the sign he held, labelled 'mr ali scott' (a bit of a miscommunication there apparently). Victor was very nice, with a good car, good English, and bottled water for us. We got quickly out of the crazy Beijing traffic (where honking horns is rude in Vancouver, it's a way of life here) and into the suburbs. The suburbs had a lot of plant farms and villas (victor said these are what they have instead of homes) but it was very brown and there was alot of garbage. The sky was covered by that brownish pollution haze, but we began to see more blue sky as we got further out. We started driving through some more authentic Chinese villages as we went along, and then we drove into a valley. It was a huge change of scenery; we went along a river past riverside bars, and Chinese bridges and gazebos. The mountains surrounding us had dark green trees and cliff faces of orange yellow rock. As we drove further, we began to wind up and down switchbacks. We noticed that the river was freezing over, and that there were patches of snow here and there. We both had a mental sigh and reassessed the layers we were going to have to wear tomorrow. It was a challenge to find the hostel we were staying at, zhao's hostel, because it was so remote. Victor kept calling people to make sure we were heading in the right direction. Finally we arrived, after about a 2 hour drive, two highway tolls, and a village entry fee. Coming from Vancouver this is hard to picture, but do your best. We pulled into the village, and it was black. Like totally black. Not a single light on, and we had to walk along the stone path by moonlight. It was also dead silent. We couldn't hear people, cars, anything. It was pretty unreal coming from a big city to this way of life. And funny, i had been wondering if they had wifi when we arranged the stay back in Vancouver. Victor led us through a doorway covered by a curtain right into a family dinner. There were two ladies and a man in a room with and a large elevated bamboo mat (victor said it was a communal sleeping area) to the right, and a small table with chairs and a tiny tv to the left. The floor was cement and the walls covered with a heavy duty paper. The building was extremely old. The table was piled with homemade Chinese food and chopsticks. The family didn't really speak English, so thank goodness for our translator victor. Everyone yelled (they don't like speaking quietly apparently) a bit in Chinese, then the younger woman led us out of the house into a courtyard and unlocked a room for us. The room was the same temperature as the air outside. Which was below zero.. She plugged in a small heater and heated bed pads, and we went back with her to the main building (I can't quite call it a house.. It only had 3 rooms and yet they all lived there!) and used victor as the middleman to discuss the logistics of our hike tomorrow. They tried to talk us out of the route we wanted to do, saying it's too dificult for us. We ended up just going for it though; we're only here once afterall. We agreed on a wake up time, and we returned to our room. The rooms were simple; two small single beds, a bedside table, and a very small amount of floorspace. We went into the bathroom and discovered our very first Chinese squat toilet! And the best news was that the pipes were frozen so no running water! They left a bucket of water and a scoop beside the toilet though so after you did your business you pour a scoop of water into the toilet to dilute the smell, then give it several minutes to somewhat drain out. We went to bed very quickly, me wearing two pairs of pants and three sweaters because the heater really didn't do anything. I phased the pillow they provided, as it really was just a bag filled with sand. Once our heated bed pads had warmed up, we fell asleep pretty quick. Insane day; you know your itinerary but I never imagined any of this.