I hope to return to China to adopt again and hope I am able to once again visit Xi'an...
 From Xian | Mar 30, 2004 17:03

Where to stay in Xi'an? | Xi'an | Mar 30, 2004 17:21
My wife and I stayed at the Grand New World Hotel, which is inside the old walled city and within walking distance of the Bell Tower, Great Mosque and close to the Muslim quarter. Hotel was 4-star and very nice, rates about $100.00 US. Hotel food was very pricey and tried to appeal to westerners in China. ie. not very authentic. But there was a great little mom-and -pop joint across the street, where some previous visitors had translated at least some of the menu into English and dinner for two was less than $20.00, beer included.
There's also a Great New World Hotel, a few blocks away, but it didn't look so hot from the outside.

Our first afternoon, after we got settled in the hotel about 3:00 o'clock, we walked, in search of an ATM, about a mile form the hotel to the Bank Of China. Never did find an ATM, but we came across a city park where they had a public puppet show every afternoon.

I think if you stay outside of the old walled city, hotel trates go down by about 25%, but you're not so close to the attractions. If you link to www.taxitour.com you'll get in touch with a fabulous guide for a one day tour of Terracotta warriors, cave dwellers and banpo village/museum. I can't rate this guy highly enough, he "made" our trip to Xi'an. There's an English University in Xi'an, and we hired one of the students to be our city guide for one day. I think I knew more about the attractions we wanted to see than she did, but once she knew what we wanted to see, she figured out how to get there and we all had a learning experience.

Have fun!