Discover Xi'an
Huaqing Palace (Huaqing Pool)
华清宫（华清池）
Hot-spring bathing pools where Tang emperor Xuanzong wintered with his consort Yang Guifei, on a hillside that was also the site of the 1936 Xi'an Incident that changed modern Chinese history. It sits on the road to the Terracotta Army, so it pairs naturally with a Lintong day.
The story
What makes this place special
A hot-spring resort at the north foot of Mount Li, about 25km east of Xi'an, used by rulers for nearly three thousand years - King You of Zhou, Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi all built here. Its famous phase is Tang: Emperor Xuanzong rebuilt it as Wenquan Palace in 723, renamed it Huaqing Palace in 747, and it became the setting of his affair with Yang Guifei, the story Bai Juyi turned into the 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow'. The palace was badly damaged in the An Lushan rebellion. Its second claim on history is modern: in December 1936 the generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng seized Chiang Kai-shek here - the Xi'an Incident - and forced him into a united front with the Communists against Japan.
What you’ll discover
Terraced gardens and halls climbing the lower slope of Mount Li around pools and springs. The archaeological core is a covered hall over the excavated Tang bathing pools, including the lotus-shaped imperial pool and Yang Guifei's own smaller pool - stone basins and drains in the ground rather than standing buildings. Elsewhere are a reconstructed Qing-era pool, the much-photographed white statue of Yang Guifei, and, up the hill behind, the Five-Room Hall where Chiang Kai-shek was staying in 1936, kept as a museum of the incident. A cable car runs further up Mount Li to the pavilion from which Chiang was captured.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- It is on the road to the Terracotta Army, a few kilometres short of it, so the two pair naturally in one day - do Huaqing first in the morning and the army in the afternoon when the coach groups have gone.
- The 1936 Xi'an Incident site up the hill is the more interesting half and is quiet, because the tour flow stops at the pools. Chiang's rooms and the hillside pavilion where he was found are a real piece of 20th-century history that almost no foreign itinerary mentions.
- The Tang pools themselves are low stone outlines under a roof and underwhelm people who expect a bathhouse. Read the story before you go or hire a guide; without the narrative there is very little to look at.
- You can actually put your hands in the spring water at the hand-washing basins - about the only direct physical contact with a Tang imperial site anywhere.
- The evening song-and-dance spectacular staged on the site in warm months is a large commercial production, separately ticketed, and is the main reason many Chinese visitors come - decide in advance whether you want that or a quiet daytime visit.
- Mount Li above the site is a steep hill; the cable car saves a long climb, but check it is running before you count on it.
When to come
Morning, on the way out to the Terracotta Army, in spring or autumn. The hillside gardens are good in April; in midsummer the terraces are hot and exposed and the site is at its most crowded.
Getting around
Partly manageable. The lower gardens, the pool halls and the main paths are paved and mostly level or gently ramped, and a wheelchair can see the excavated Tang pools and the gardens. Everything uphill is not: the Xi'an Incident buildings and the upper terraces are reached by flights of stone steps and steep paths, and the cable car to Mount Li involves steps and a moving boarding platform. A bad knee can do the pools and gardens but should skip the hill.
Worth knowing before you go
The outdoor 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow' show (roughly 208-¥388 depending on seat and session, three sessions from 20:00) is sold separately, and a show ticket does NOT include daytime entry to the palace grounds.
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