西安: An Evaluation, Part 1

After spending approximately 36 hours in 西安 (Xī'ān), the City of Western Peace, I’ve reaffirmed a few things in my mind:

1. I love hostels. They are God’s gift to the frugal traveler.

2. There is absolutely no escaping the crush of people in China.

3. Food is the best way to get to know any culture.

Let’s talk hostels. Our hostel, the Shuyuan Hostel, apparently has been ranked among the top ten hostels in the world by Hostels International, and I think I can understand why. A private room for Liz and me cost ¥160, or ¥80 ($12) per person, per night. This private room came with its own bathroom (Western toilet!), shower, towels and shower shoes. The hostel itself had free Wi-Fi (not the greatest), on site laundry services, a restaurant, a large bar and great décor. 

from the lobby
credit: Liz Lee

They also had pretty good service, aside from a minor passport issue. I had forgotten that you are required to show your passport when checking into any overnight accommodations in China. What’s worse, my passport was still being processed back in Beijing for the addition of a visa (allowing me to go to South Korea next weekend). This looked like it was going to be an issue, as in the lady said, “You can’t stay here,” but another super-kind lady intervened and asked if we had any other paperwork. Luckily, I was travelling with copies of every official passport/visa-related document, as well as the receipt from my visa purchase, so they were able to use that information to check me in. Moral of the story: ALWAYS BRING YOUR PASSPORT/INFO WHEN TRAVELLING. Thanks Mommy :)

Another benefit of staying at the hostel was that one of the employees, seeing as we were in a rush to see lots of things before two in our party had to get back to the train, offered to drive us where we needed to go for a pretty reasonable fee. So we actually had our own private car for the day, which was greatly appreciated as we went off to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and whatnot.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take advantage of their organized excursions, but the literature was really promising. For anyone thinking of spending time in Xi’an, there’s the added bonus of it being one of the closest modern Chinese cities to Tibet. I really wanted to skip on over to Tibet, but class on Monday kind of discouraged me from taking that option. Anyway, hostels. They’re great.