1:30 a.m., we arrived at Beijing Airport after a 12‑hr flight from Vancouver. At the Vancouver Airport we saw a traditional Chinese dragon dance to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Three brightly coloured dragons paraded through the airport to the beat of a large kettle drum . A bearded man dressed in red, who we learned in Beijing is the Chinese Robin Hood, accompanied them. The dragons performed at each store and airline counter and dropped lettuce leafs on the floor. This is supposed to symbolize prosperity in the New Year.

We flew out of Vancouver at 1:30 p.m., had lunch at 2, then snacks, followed by dinner around 8. Surprisingly the Air Canada food was pretty good. Then after a couple of bad movies and a brief nap we had breakfast around 12:30 a.m. Kind of strange eating breakfast at that hour; even stranger eating Chinese noodle soup out of a cardboard container with chopsticks when you're half asleep. What a great way to wake up in a hurry. McDonalds should try that.

The flight took us up the west coast of Canada, over Alaska, then down the Kamchatka Peninsula, over Korea and then for 1,000s of miles over China. I was surprised that we didn't fly over the ocean, but it makes sense because you do the same thing when you fly to England, that is, fly north over Greenland . The world is smaller up there.

Russia was an amazing frozen, barren wasteland of rolling hills and icy rivers. Closer to China we started going over higher mountains covered in hoar frost that gleamed silver and gold in the setting sun. The sun, by the way, just couldn't get its act together to set and we kept following it west all night long.

We were met at the modern and clean Beijing Airport by David and his driver. David is the best friend of one of Carolann's work colleagues and he had agreed to host us while we visited China. David's real name is Wei Dong, which means "Protector of Mao Tse Dong", a common name of children born during the Cultural Revolution. He introduced his driver as a "professional driver," which reassured us until he got lost trying to get out of the airport. But, what the heck, at 1:30 a.m. we were too tired to care.

To our surprise we drove north for an hour and a half following a modern, multilane highway out of Beijing . Even though it was "rush hour" there were very few cars on the road. We thought it might have been because it was Chinese New Year's, but since then we have noticed there are very few cars and the roads are all extra big, like everything else in this country. This might explain why the driver liked to straddle the white line between the lanes at 120 kph.

Going north took us back into the mountains we had flown over. We left the highway at Badaling and turned onto a dark narrow road where we caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall of China. By now it was night, but it was still pretty exciting to see the wall and its towers atop the mountains.

After another 40 minutes we reached Yan Qing (Yanching), the city where David taught English at the Yan Qing University of Science and Technology. In spite of his young 38 years, David is also VP.

Yan Qing has only 100,000 inhabitants, but it's huge, with wide streets, and extra large, modern buildings . The whole town was decked out in red, a colour that symbolizes wealth and prosperity for the new year. All the buildings ‑‑ even the lowliest hovels ‑‑ had red banners on either side of the doorway. These are traditional New Year's wishes of good will and prosperity. Huge red cloth lanterns were hung everywhere.

But what hit us the most were the New Year's lights. All the main streets were lit up like Christmas back home. Yan Qing is apparently famous for its unique light display at New Year's. Long garlands of white lights hung over the eight lanes of the streets. On either side were flashing "Barber poles" of coloured lights, red, blue, purple, white, green.

David dropped us off at our "apartment", which turned out to be a room in the university residence. We had requested a hotel, but as VP he had arranged something free at the school to save us money. David was a very gracious and generous host. But he made it quite clear that he expected to be "treated" in return when he visited Canada .

The room was a small 10x15 student dorm with three beds, 2 small study desks, 2 tiny end tables and very little heat. It had to be minus 20 outside and minus 5 in the room. We froze.

By now it was about 3 a.m. and all we wanted to do was crash. David, however, had other hosting ideas. Part of the traditional New Year's celebration is to visit your in-laws on the second night for dinner. After 4 meals on the plane and no sleep in 24 hours, it was the last thing we wanted to do, but when in Rome do as the Romans.

Dinner started with traditional Chinese New Year's cakes with bottomless cups of green tea. We nibbled a bit and explained again that we had just eaten on the plane. The tray of cakes was removed, but soon replaced with heaping plates of noodles, eggs with shrimp, stir fried pork, celery, dark mushrooms and BBQ'd chicken. We were supposed to wash this down with a clear 35% liquor made from wheat, but neither of us could get the foul smelling firewater past our lips . David, however, just kept toasting us and refilling our glasses.

Then the traditional New Year's dumplings stuffed with chopped meat were brought out. They were served with a dark vinegar and were very tasty. The chopped meat signifies chopping up any bad luck that might be lurking around.

We just couldn't finish it all and I was a bit worried we might be insulting our hosts. Also, I felt bad about wasting food. When we were kids and didn't clean off our plates, my mother would always say, "There are lots of starving children in China who would love to have that food."

The dinner was prepared by David's mother in-law in a tiny apartment in the building that housed the university professors. It used to be his place but he had just bought a new house with his wife and son. The apartment was small with a tiny kitchen and bathroom off a central living room that doubled as a dining room . We sat at a small card table that barely had room for all the food.

Our driver joined us, but the rest of the family didn't. They just watched us curiously from the sidelines. His brother in law was particularly intrigued by us and kept asking questions in Chinese all evening.

As we staggered back to our dorm, explosions were going off all over town. The sky lit up and loud explosions were accompanied by long staccato bursts that sounded like machine gunfire. Fortunately, these were just traditional fireworks to celebrate New Year's and the start of the "Spring Festival" ‑‑ how you could have a spring festival when it's 20 below is anyone's guess. The fireworks are supposed to scare away evil spirits.

It was the longest and loudest display of pyrotechnics I have ever seen. They lasted until midnight and we thought finally we would be able to get some sleep. But in the middle of the night, the wind picked up and a loud banging started at the end of the long dark hallway leading outside .

We were supposed to be the only ones in the dorm during the holidays. Our room was locked, but I hadn't been able to close the sliding lock on the outside door so I was afraid someone had broken in during the night. I reluctantly got up at 3:30 a.m. afraid I might encounter someone who spoke only Chinese. But it wasn't the door at all. In China they use long, thick, clear plastic strips over doorways to keep out the cold and dust from sandstorms blowing in from the Gobi desert. There was nothing I could do and the banging lasted all night long only to be joined at 6:30 a.m. by renewed fireworks.

After a sleepless night, we drove back to Badaling to visit the Great Wall. I wish I could say it was fabulous and the view was spectacular, but it was so bitterly cold and the Siberian wind so strong that we could barely look up to enjoy the sight of this feat of engineering.

However, at 5,000 km long and wide enough for 5 horsemen or 10 soldiers abreast it is truly remarkable . Tall watchtowers are placed at regular intervals to house the soldiers. As the wind howled around us, I imagined ancient Chinese soldiers hunkered down around a fire trying to keep warm and looking out periodically for invading hordes. No wonder they were eventually overrun. We hiked along the wall for maybe a kilometer and then blew back down the slippery walkway.

Although the wall was crowded because of the New Year's holidays, we were the only Caucasians. We were frequently stared at and twice I was stopped by groups who wanted their picture taken with me. I seemed to be more popular than the big hairy Camels that were also on the wall for picture takers.

In the afternoon we drove over to the Ming Tombs, a huge collection of towers and underground burial chambers that housed 13 of the 18 Ming Emperors (1368‑1644 AD). We visited the largest and best preserved tomb, which was interesting for its gardens above ground and the fact that the burial chamber was 7 stories underground . Inside was little to be seen, but the on‑site museum had some interesting displays and artifacts.

We had lunch at the best restaurant in town. Their specialty was a "soup" that we made ourselves in a large boiling cauldron of broth in the middle of the table. A metal blade divided the pot in two, with clear broth on one side and hot, chili pepper broth on the other.

Large trays of thinly sliced lamb, potato, sprouts, pickled garlic, sprouts, and sheep's stomach arrived. We cooked these in the broth, then pulled them out and dipped them in small bowls of peanut and sesame sauce with a small round disk of sesame seeds in the middle. To this we added coriander and onions. All this was washed down with copious amounts of an excellent Chinese beer. It was very delicious and quite filling.

The next night, in spite of the cold, we went and visited the fabulous display of ice sculptures at Longqinqxia, the Longqin Gorge . This is quite a tourist attraction at New Year's and people come all the way from Beijing every year to see it.

The only way to describe it is as an ice city nestled in between tall mountains with huge 30‑foot temples and palaces made out of ice. The structures are lit up with coloured ribbon lights running through the ice blocks.

Around the gorge, high up on the mountains, strings of lights create the illusion of the "Great Wall" with towers and parapets running up and over the mountains. On one side, the words Longqin Gorge are lit up in flaming red ribbon lights running down the hill. It looks like ancient flaming fire pots.

On the other side, an old dam towers over the gorge. It's lit up like a castle with a large 100‑metre tunnel in the shape of a dragon leading up to it. It was all very kitschy and over the top, like Disneyland on ice. But it was so unusual and big that we were quite impressed .

Everything is oversized in China. It's like they're trying to outdo the Soviets for big. Even in small towns the buildings, streets and squares are huge and imposing. I wonder if this is ego tripping or intimidation. The gas stations are enormous structures with 20 pumps and large teepee‑like roofs towering over the roadside.

An appearance of nouveau wealth is also obvious. Although there aren't a lot of cars on the roads, there are lots of Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and expensive Volkswagens everywhere.

Breakfast the next day was at a local restaurant. We had hot bean curd soup called Doujing. We warmed our hands on the steam from the soup because the restaurant wasn't heated. We also had a meat pie shaped like a pancake called Xinabing and a 1,000‑year‑old egg boiled in tea and soy sauce called Chajidan. A great way to start off a cold winter day.

Next we're off to Beijing.