I'm losing track of which hotels have been mentioned, but:

The Hyatt is to the East, inside the wall; the Shangri-La is to the East, outside the wall.

The Sheraton is 180 degrees in the opposite direction and about a mile outside the west gate

The Sheraton is outside the South Gate

Both the Bell Tower Hotel and the Sofitel are right in the heart of the Drum-Bell tower Square area. This is probably the ideal location, since the Moslem Quarter is in that general area as well. You can easily walk to some of the major places to visit, night and day. Very safe.

Just opposite the Bell Tower Hotel is a restaurant. It serves at least a hundred different varieties of dumplings. You can choose from a fixed price menu of several different combinations of dumplings. Quite an extraordinary experience!

easytraveler: Now you've become our Xian expert!