camwyn | Adding a stop to the trip

Went through my copy of Frommer's China: The 50 Most Memorable Trips today. Mostly planned on looking up Guangzhou information, but the book indicates that Guangzhou is in the same category as Shanghai - people who want to shop or do business will be happier there than people like me. Oh, well, perhaps there would be other cities along the HK-Beijing train route? Hmm, not in the book... well... where else would I like to go?

Xi'an sprang immediately to mind. Xi'an is the site of one of the ancient capitals of the Middle Kingdom. It's the place where they found Absolutely Assloads of Guys Made From Clay in the 1970's. Got a lot of other historical buildings, too, including what I'm told is a very interesting mosque. Mostly I'm interested in the Assload of Soldiers. No hostels in the Focus on China listing of Hostelling International, but they've got two hotels for about $40 US a night in the Frommer's book, one of which I found on a listing of hotels at a travel agency web site. Train service exists from Beijing to Xi'an, possibly from Xi'an to Wuhan as well, but it's apparently an awfully long ride (17 hours, I think?). There are domestic flights about 90 minutes long but I have no price data on them.

I've got a while to decide yet, so if anyone's got any suggestions...