I taught at this school in 2005-06. Overall, I would say it is a good school to teach at. Workload is light (roughly 16 hrs/wk), students in the English department are eager to interact with foreigners, housing accommodations for the foreign teachers are excellent. When I was there the starting pay was probably a little above average for Xi'an schools, but then again you would be making much more in a city like Shanghai or Beijing. Also, when I was there, there were about 12-15 other expats.

As for the surrounding area, it has changed tremendously! Streets are much cleaner and much more "organized." Xi'an is developing at an exponential rate.

Hope this helps.