[2025 Xi'an Attraction] Travel Guide for Hua Qing Palace (Updated Apr)

Huaqing Palace (Huaqing Hot Spring & Lishan Mountain) is located 30 kilometers east of Xi'an, adjacent to the Terracotta Warriors. It is well-known at home and abroad for its eternal hot spring resources and numerous historical events, and has become a landmark scenic Attraction for Chinese Tang Palace cultural tourism. 【Palace Scenic Spots】 ▲Huaqing Palace has a long history. Emperors of the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties built palaces and villas here. The palace houses cultural areas such as the Tang Imperial Hot Springs Site Museum, the site of the Xi'an Incident - the Five-Room Hall, the Jiulong Lake and Furong Lake Scenic Area, the Tang Pear Garden Site Museum and iconic buildings such as the Feishuang Hall, the Wanshou Hall, the Changsheng Hall, the Huanyuan and the Yuwang Hall. ▲“Ode to Hot Springs” Monument Lishan Hot Springs are known as the "No. 1 Imperial Spring in the World" because they were developed and utilized early and were favored by emperors of all dynasties. As early as 6,000 years ago during the Yangshao period, the ancestors of Jiangzhai began to use Lishan Hot Springs. The long-standing Lishan Hot Springs embody rich cultural connotations and are an indispensable and important part of the history and culture of the Chinese nation. The stone tablet in the Attraction is 154 cm high, 72 cm wide and 19 cm thick, with a coiled dragon head and a trapezoidal base. It was engraved by Yuan Chang, the governor of Yongzhou in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The inscription reads, "Hot springs are the natural prescription, the original medicine of heaven and earth, and the people of all nations are supported by hot springs. Guests with illnesses who sleep on the hot springs all come to visit and heal their sufferings with water." This tablet is the earliest existing physical material in Huaqing Palace. ▲Tang Yutang Site Museum This is the location of the bathhouse where Yang Guifei's bathing scene is described in "The Song of Song of Everlasting Sorrow". After the An-Shi Rebellion, the original building was barely left. In 1982, when the Lintong County People's Government was building the "Imperial Concubine Pavilion", they accidentally discovered the ruins of a Tang Dynasty bathhouse. After excavation and sorting, it was built into the Tang Huaqing Palace Imperial Hot Spring Relics Museum. This hot spring pool is small and exquisite, with a unique design. It is 3.6 meters long from east to west and 2.9 meters wide from north to south, and its shape is similar to an ellipse. Next to the east of the Imperial Concubine Pool is the imperial bath used exclusively by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, a Nine Dragon Hall was built on the pool. Outside the hall, there are nine dragons carved from white jade, spouting water from their mouths. The bath is shaped like a realistic lotus, so it is also called "Lotus Bath". ▲The site of the Xi’an Incident The five halls of Huaqing Palace are where the Xi'an Incident took place. To this day, bullet marks from the fierce fighting during the military rebellion are still preserved on the glass windows and walls of the five halls. The tables, chairs, beds, sofas, tea sets, stoves, carpets, telephones, etc. used in the offices of each room are all reproduced and placed in their original appearance. 【Historical Events】 ▲Deceiving the Lords with Beacon Fires In 779 BC, King You of Zhou got the beautiful Bao Si, but she never smiled. For this reason, King You and the treacherous minister Guo Shifu discussed a clever plan and lit the beacon tower on Mount Li. The princes of the world watched the beacon and quickly led their troops to rescue him. King You told the princes: "I raised the beacon to make the queen smile", so Bao Si laughed. The princes from all walks of life came with courage and returned with resentment. Seeing that King You was incompetent and the people were alienated, the Quanrong Kingdom took the opportunity to lead troops to attack. When the troops were at the foot of the mountain, King You of Zhou hurriedly raised the beacon to mobilize troops, but none of the princes came to rescue him. King You fled to the foot of Mount Li with Bao Si and was killed by the Quanrong. The historical allusions of "a smile is worth a thousand gold", "a smile loses the world", and "playing with princes with beacon fire" were left behind. Su Dongpo wrote poems at Mount Li During the Jiayou period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the hot springs of Mount Li were painstakingly renovated by Liu Ziyong and others. They were so beautiful that tourists flocked to them, chanting poems and writing fu, expressing their feelings and nostalgia. Among these numerous poems and fu, the masterpieces such as "Lady Guoguo's Night Tour" and "Mount Li" written by the emerging literary giant Su Shi during his visit to Mount Li are outstanding. Xi'an Incident The Xi'an Incident, also known as the "Double Twelve Incident," was a mutiny launched by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng at Huaqing Pool, detaining the then Chairman of the Nationalist Government's Military Commission. 【Performance】 ▲Performance of "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow". The Attraction launched the large-scale real-life historical dance drama "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" in 2007, and the multimedia video drama "Xuanjing Changsheng Palace" in 2012. ▲There is also " 12·12 Xi'an Incident" adapted from historical events, which truly and vividly shows the little-known historical original appearance of the "Xi'an Incident".