Ge Baotao, in his 60s, and his wife, Meng Xiaoqin, lived deep in the forest in the Greater Khingan Mountains for decades. Wherever Ge went, he carried a cloth bag, a small-caliber rifle, a sword by his hip, strings of steel animal traps, and was always accompanied by his loyal dog — a typical image of a capable hunter. The combined total of his prey, which included bears, deer, and other wild game, was said to be uncountable.

Ge is from the Oroqen ethnic minority, and his hunting skills were handed down from his ancestors. The Oroqen people, with a small population found only in the Khingan Mountains and on the shores of the Heilongjiang River, have reputations as "Hunting gods on the Khingan Range" and "Horseback People." Countless generations have inhabited the forest, surviving by hunting. They eat animal meat, wear hide clothes, and live in wood cabins, largely preserving their traditional hunting customs and maintaining an age-old way of life.

The Oroqen people treasure their unique hunting customs. When they kill a bear, for example, they will kneel in apology. Before dismembering it, they use tree branches to pry open the bear's mouth to superstitiously safeguard against sudden attack by the deceased animal. Afterwards, they save the bear's head on a tree, believing that it contains the soul, and that eating it would cause the species to become extinct. These customs may seem oddly backward in modern times, but they graphically illustrate the Oroqen philosophy of coexisting in harmony with nature.

In recent years, mountain wildlife populations have decreased. Through an entire winter, Ge Baotao only managed to kill six roe deer. After the State banned hunting rare and precious wildlife and restricted the hunting of some wild species with relatively large populations (such as moose and roe deer), Ge's neighbors, who were previously hunters as well, all relocated to the villages at the foot of the mountain and took up farming. Only Ge and his wife stayed in the forest to maintain their traditional way of life, despite lacking electricity and modern transportation. Every two weeks, the couple descended the mountain on foot to purchase some living necessities and fresh vegetables.

When Wang Fuchun revisited Ge's home in the spring of 2006, he showed him pictures he took a dozen years ago, which ignited the old hunter's memory of the past. Ge told the photographer that he would never leave the mountain in his lifetime and that he would prefer to die there. And, so he did. In October of that year, Ge passed away on the mountain, his final wish realized.