Please help me to understand two parts of this sentence...
「冬に北海道に行ってみればどんなに寒いかということがわかるだろう。」
The website that I got this example sentence from translates this sentence as: "If you go to Hokkaido in the winter, you will see how cold it is there."It also gives another way of saying the second half of the sentence:
「どんなに寒いかがわかるだろう。」
My questions are thus:
1. How does ということ affect the meaning of this sentence? What does ということ even mean? The website does not explain this very well, unfortunately, and I can't seem to find a website that does give a good explanation of ということ, either.
2. Why is there a か particle in the middle of the sentence? I've seen か used like this before, but no website ever explains how か is used in the middle of sentences. The only resources I ever find are just beginner's ones which only cover か at the end of a sentence, which I already know about.
Help with either of these questions would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance! =)