JI Hotel Xian The Bell Tower

From outside, the Bell Tower looks great, and you can get a lovely view from a premium room too. The hotel is in the old town, with quite a few things within walking distance. Just be careful with printed maps. Places can look close together on paper, but a trip marked as a few minutes may take up to an hour in reality.

My room faced the Bell Tower, and the view was amazing. The hotel is directly opposite the tower and easy to reach by metro. There’s a lot of traffic around there, though, so it was noisy even at night. If you’re a light sleeper, ask for a room facing the other way.

You can’t beat the location: right by the Bell Tower, just steps from the Muslim Quarter and the metro. The night views were spectacular, and our room was spacious, comfortable, and kept very clean by housekeeping. Staff were generally polite and helpful, and the airport transfer service worked well for us. The building has some historic charm, but parts of it feel dated. The hallways, bathrooms, and carpets show wear, though they were still functional. There’s also city noise from the roundabout nearby, so light sleepers may want to request a quiet room or bring earplugs. We’d stay again for the convenience and atmosphere, as long as we kept in mind the trade-offs of an older building in such a busy spot. It made a very good base for exploring Xi'an.

The carpets looked very dirty. I stayed in November, when the building's AC wasn't running. We were told to open the windows for cooler air, but the area was so loud that sleeping was almost impossible.