Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

SHU1 YUAN4 and XIANG1 ZI3 MEN2 HOSTELS by the South Gate- SHU1 YUAN4 HOSTEL (lv3 she4) is quite a relaxed place to hang out, depending on the time of year I suppose. It has a number of airy and comfortable seating areas and a sort of outside seating area at the back of the hostel ( a partial glass roof a couple of floors up prevents rain descending). A traditional stone baked pizza oven is nestled in the kitchen close by-always good- the fact they have a pizza oven not necessarily the pizzas.  Sells real coffee relatively cheap for Xi’an. Wireless all over the hostel. It is on Shun4 Cheng2 Xi1 Xiang4 (Shun Cheng West Alley), which is the small street on the right, just before you go out of the South Gate, running along side the wall. It is the first hostel of two, above Park Qin Bar. Their Website.

The second hostel, XIANG1 ZI3 MEN2 HOSTEL (lv3 she4), has a pool table and a lot of very comfortable sofas and is itself a good spot when trying to escape from the down town masses. I have also wandered in there a couple of times to find quite a good western movie playing on a big screen. You can enter from the back here on Shun4 Chen2 West Alley, but also at the front entrance on Xiang1 Zi3 Men2, the street behind running parallel. The service at both hostels is pretty average, being hostels they like it when you speak Chinese and doing so often improves the service.