I took a brief stay of one night at the Grand Park Hotel of Xi’an last week. It’s located in the central downtown of Xi’an, a few hundred meters outside of the famous city wall. With rooms facing north east, you can have a good view of the grandiose city wall as well as the buildings and streets within. When the weather is clear, it’s as spectacular as it can get both day and night.

Anyway, mine was a rather positive experience except that it’s a little noisy after midnight because they were doing some fixing work of the hotel building. I saw an apologizing letter from their executive manager placed on the desk when I first set in. Fair enough. The noises were tolerable considering the hotel is surrounded by busy traffic in the heart of the district.

The thing to blame was the door which was everything but sound-proof. In the early morning next day I had to uncomfortably wake up several times because of the early rising kids from the neighboring rooms playing just outside of mine. They should definitely replace those room doors with better ones that can shut out any unwanted noise.

Overall, 4/5 from me. Below are some photos I took of the hotel and the room which costed me 750 CNY or 110 USD for one night.

Just outside of the Grand Park Xi'an hotelInside the huge welcoming hall of Grand Park HotelThe small fountain inside the Grand Park Xi'an hotelSome Chinese new year stuffThe bed settingThe TV set and the deskHotel structure blueprint and exit instructionsThe toilet room / bath room with all sorts of hygiene supplies for 2 peopleThe shower sprayThe bath tub with unlimited hot water 24 hours a dayDrinks in the small refrigeratorThings you use to drink water or tea: a tray, cups, etc.The desk with a telephone, a water boiler, a room manual, a lamp, a hair dryer and a coil of network cableThe TV remote control and TV guide with channels including BBC, CNN, Discovery, HBO, Bloomberg, ESPN, etc.

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As of today, the average housing cost of downtown Xi’an, the most developed and inhabited metropolis in Northwestern China, is slightly over 5,500 CNY per square meter, or 820 in USD. For a common household comprising of 3 family members, an apartment measuring 70 square meters or more (753 ft2) is essential in comfortable accommodation. Preferable is an apartment of 100 square meters or larger in size which would be worth over 550,000 CNY or 82,000 USD. And that is without any interiors nor furnitures at all. Though not much for a US resident, that’s a ton of money for a common household in Xi’an, China, let alone an individual.

Multiply it by 5 and you get the rough average real estate price for Beijing and Shanghai.

After a soar in real estate price level for the last 3 years, in China it has become rather difficult for the ordinary working class to own their own houses, especially in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. That’s why the state government has recently issued a series of regulations to restrict the housing price from elevating any further. The hope is, without jeopardizing economy growth, for the deep-pocket speculators to stop stocking properties that are meant for underprivileged buyers and make the price return to the affordable level. A bubble can never be good when it bursts.

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The Best University in Xi’an

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As one of the top 3 travel destinations across the whole China, Xi’an is also one of the top 3 cities in China that have the most universities and academic institutions, immediately behind Beijing and Shanghai. Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) is one of the top 10 universities of China and the best in Xi’an. Since [...]

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Xi’an Hotels isn’t just an information site!

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Xi’an Hotels is a grand new way to present what Xi’an, a world famous destination and once upon a time the most civilized metropolis of the world, is like and what it is like to travel as well as to live in here. It’s not only an information portal of the best hotels in Xi’an, [...]

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