New World Hotel Xian

In Xian now. Took a sleeper train from Lanzhou last night. Slept like a baby. Tried to get some tea when we woke up but couldn't relay to anyone we needed cups. My translator I bought is useless and I will be returning it when I get home. I stood in the ...

... in Xian at 06:30 am and according to the announcement on the train you haven't been to China if you hadn't been to Xian, so clever us! Hotel was in city centre called Bell and Drum Hotel beside two towers, one called Bell and the other called Drum. So the ...

... really good, mixture of English music and a lot of Beatles were being played.   The next day we checked out of our hotel and everyone checked their bags into the left luggage at the train station.  We all then boarded the bus to the Terracotta ...

... sleep (you wouldn't believe how tiring this traveling thing is) then booked a train ticket to Beijing with the help of our hotel manager, Jim Beam. He wrote out exactly what we wanted in Chinese which made it way easier than pointing in the phrase ...

... us somewhere different!!! Needless to say we didnt go with the tout to look at more hotels. We checked into what looked like a 4 star chain hotel with a list price of 485yuan a night which we got for 160yuan!! Very nice it was too :D We had a bath for the ...

... I drove through Xian for the first time, especially with its huge square wall separating the old city from the new. We were transferred to our hotel, the Jing Cheng which is situated south of the city's Southern Gate. The hotels we've been staying on ...

... taking in the smell of spicy lamb kebabs; we try them for ourselves and they prove to be delicious. Heading back to the hotel I remark that Xian (population 4M) is a city bursting at the seams. Its hot, polluted, overcrowded, and the traffic is some of ...

... been there for 5yrs. She's just finished high school and got into a Biology course at a Uni in Maryland (near New York I think... or in that part of the world). I didn't end up getting any names of chicks on this tour. The 2 Shanghai chicks appeared to ...

The flight was uneventful and we were soon in our new hotel next to the inner wall. Xian once vied with Rome and later Constantinople for the title of greatest city in the world. That evening we went to the Tang Dynasty dinner theater for a delicious ...

... and could have taken so many more. I slept all the way back to the hostel but strangely didn't siesta like the others at the hotel, but went for a walk around Xi'an town on my own for a couple hours instead. At the usual Uncle dinner we had an amazing ...

... to Tibet Kailash hotel. This room also never warmed aboave 12oC. I agreed to spend first night there and would transfer to [New] Mandala Hotel next noon. This was done. The room warmed to 20oC and is quite satisfactory; Here now and till 18th when I fly ...

... or a banana. The hotel, like many things in China, appears unsure of its own name. On some signs it claimed to be the Grand New World Hotel, or just the New World Hotel, but on others it appeared as the Grand Dynasty. The hotel in Datong had a similar ...

... my tour (VIP treatment people!) after a long wet drive through what looked like a deserted mining town I arrived at the Grand New World Hotel now this was like putting the Ritz in Deptford! Inside the hotel was 4/5 star luxury and outside it looked like ...

... a population of around ten million. I have to say as we got off the bus at our (rather swanky) hotel, I immediately felt that unlike Beijing, Xian was the real thing. It was gritty, sweaty, dirty, loud, fast, bustling, shouty – utterly mesmerising. ...

... Chinese Chess, and one old bloke was laying in bed, right in the middle of the street. The Flats of Remin Hotel has quite a reputation as Xian's backpacker hangout. We ate at Kane's Cafe and looked at a room at "The Flats". Kane's brother volunteered ...

... suits. There is a rumor going around that President Obama may be coming to town. They have had many presidents from around the world here because this is a must see spot in China. The first of the US presidents was Bush but the most popular was the ...

... We went for a stroll around the harbour, not too much has changed since i was last there, a few new developments around the aquarium to form animal world (or something like that!) and some building work going on in the park, but otherwise much like ...

... the journey on to Kunming (no hassles thank god, I was a bit worried considering our experience to date) and headed out to find a hotel. Our negotiation skills were pathetic compared to Patrick, and we had to settle with 100RMB. Worse was yet to come. The ...

... to the events of the morning - this sums China up - one minute terrible and the next fantastic. 25/9 Xian - highlights Bell Tower Hotel Western buffet - 4 pounds for unlimited great food, coffee, beer, dessert and fruit. We stayed the whole two hours ...

... eat it is counting as being ticked off my top 35. The Chinese like fireworks and they went crazy over them at New Year, walking back to the hotel was like walking in a war zone, fire works going off everywhere and setting loads of car alarms off too. ...