Shuyuan International Youth Hostel

Shuyuan hostel is a great place to stay in Xıan. I had a nice double room with a shower room, so it was more like staying in a hotel really, but cheaper and probably better ın a way since it has all the amenities of a hostel, e.g. free internet, helpful English speaking staff, lots of information and tours you can go on (to the terracotta army, pandas etc.) a great cafe (Western and Chinese food) and a bar (where you can get a free beer every night!)... and also for a lone traveller it was a good place to meet people. It was also a great location inside the city walls by the south gate.

The only downside I think possibly was as it was very busy and since it had a lively bar (which was also frequented by locals) it isn't the easiest place to sleep if you fancy an early night. Also because ıt was so busy I had to keep waiting till the following day to see if I could stay an extra night - which was ok in the end, but perhaps it would be advisable to book a while in advance. All ın all if you are a young(ish) traveller and want somewhere nice and cheap to stay where you can meet people and get help and advice from staff on sightseeing, booking travel tickets etc. I would definitely recommend staying here... and make sure you take advantage of the free beer (or alternatıvely go to the supermarket round the corner where it ıs only 2 yuan a bottle!!!)...

This hostel is in a really good location, just inside the city walls, beside the south gate.
We booked it for our night in Xi'an in advance on a website, although the hostel had no record of this when we turned up. As a result, the twin room or two beds in an all girls dorm we requested weren't available and we had to make do with bunks in a 6 bed dorm room in the basement, which, as the Lonely Planet says, "avoid the overflow basement rooms, which are damp windowless cells". I concur!
The other rooms, which face onto the nice courtyard at the centre of the hostel, seemed nice (we managed to peer into a couple that were being cleaned when we did our laundry) but yes, the basement rooms were really damp, the floor of the conrete room literally had puddles on it in the morning from 6 people sleeping through the night without air con or ventilation. But for around £4 a night (50 RMb) each it was tolerable.
The showers were clean, it had western toilets and the laundry facilities were good value and efficient. The restaurant was also good, though SpagBol made with noodles was a first! The breakfasts were also rather tasty. They also showed films at night, and the courtyard was a good gathering place for chatting at night.

They also offer a left luggage facility, and the travel service was great. We booked a hostel for the night in Chengdu from here (though we didn't get to stay there as we missed the train from Xi'an to Chengdu, and had to stay in Xi'an another night and move straight onto Chongqing for our Yangtse Trip) and we also booked our Yangtse Cruise from here, for what turned out to be a good price. The internet facilities were quick and reasonably priced.

By Western standards, you wouldn't rate this place too highly, but by Chinese standards, and when you consider what you're paying and that food is about £1 a plate it was OK. I paid about £6 a night in Beijing (massive dorm room) and £9 a night in Shanghai (small room of 4, private bathroom).

Good for a night or two, as you really do only eat and sleep there, if that, but avoid the basement if possible! The travel centre and shop are major redeeming features!

They have a dumpling party every Friday night which is free of charge and supposed to be great - unfortunately we weren't there for that, but other people were raving about it.

Also, the website makes it look like the rooms have had a facelify/ lick of paint, so perhaps it's a bit nicer now! The bathroom pictured on the site is positively luxurious compared to what we saw, but that's probably a private bathroom, whereas we had to use the communal ones.