Great Wall Xmas BBQ Beijing Hikers are organizing a three-hour hike on a rarely visited part of the Great Wall and will celebrate Christmas afterwards with a Christmas barbecue dinner in a small hotel at the foot of the Great Wall . Meet at 8:30 am. Dec. 25 in front of Starbucks at Lido Holiday Inn , Jiangtai Lu. Please write to info@beijinghikers.com or 139-100-25516. Pingyao tour High Club will guide a weekend trip to Pingyao , an ancient walled town near Taiyuan , capital city of Shanxi Province . The town is one of the best-preserved  featuring courtyard buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) . Among them is the Qiao family courtyard house, the shooting location of Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (<<>> ). Leave on Friday (December 23) night by train and back to Beijing on Sunday morning . For sign-up and more information , contact Lucy at lucy@highclub.cn or 8580-5080,130-11171326. New Year Harbin trip The Chinese Culture Club is running a new year trip to Harbin , to catch a fresh view of its yearly ice and snow lantern festival . As the temperature is expected to fall between minus 20 to 30degC, visitors are warned to prepare well with jackets , masks , fur gloves and boots. The trip sets out by train at night on December 31 and gets back on the morning January 2. The cost is 2,300 yuan (US$ 284) . Reservation  is required at 8457-2772. Pingyao is worth seeing mainly because    _   .
it's a town surrounded by walls it's near the capital of Shanxi its buildings are old and in good condition a famous film was shot there