Discover Xi'an
Tang Paradise (Datang Furong Garden)
大唐芙蓉园
A large lakeside park in Qujiang rebuilt as a Tang imperial pleasure garden, with pavilions, costume rental and an evening water-screen show projected onto a 120-metre curtain of spray. The most theatrical way to see reconstructed Tang architecture.
The story
What makes this place special
Tang Paradise is a modern themed park, opened in 2005 southeast of Xi'an's walls, built on the approximate site of the Tang imperial Furong Garden that adjoined the Qujiang pleasure district of Chang'an. Nothing in it is ancient: the buildings are reconstructions in Tang style across 1,000 mu, around 300 mu of which is water, organised into fourteen themed zones. The scholarly value is low and the staging value is high - it was built as a place to perform Tang culture rather than preserve it.
What you’ll discover
A lake with Tang-style pavilions around it, the Ziyun Tower as the central building on the main axis, plus a ladies' hall, an imperial banquet hall, an apricot garden and a reconstructed Tang market street. Performances run through the day - costumed processions, music, dance - and after dark there is a water show on the lake in front of Ziyun Tower, with a projection screen of water about 120 m wide and 20 m high, lasers, fountains and fire effects, followed by a molten-iron 'fire dragon' display. The indoor dance-drama in the Fengming Jiutian theatre, which seats around 700, is a separate ticket.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Go in the late afternoon and stay for the night show. The park in daylight is a pleasant reconstruction; after dark, with the buildings lit and the water screen running, it is a genuinely good spectacle. Visitors who come at 10:00 and leave at 14:00 see the weakest version.
- The water show on the lake is normally included with entry; the indoor dance-drama in the Fengming Jiutian theatre is not. Decide which you want before you buy, because the theatre show has to be booked separately.
- Stay for the molten-iron fire display after the water show. Many of the crowd leave as soon as the screen goes down, and the iron-throwing is the better act.
- Get a position in front of Ziyun Tower's terrace 20-30 minutes before the water show. The viewing area is one side of the lake and it fills.
- It is beside the Big Wild Goose Pagoda district, so the sensible day is the pagoda and the Shaanxi History Museum by day, Tang Paradise in the evening.
- Treat it as theatre, not heritage. It is a 2005 park, and visitors who expect Tang fabric come away annoyed; visitors who expect a show do not.
When to come
From about two hours before sunset until after the night show. April to June and September to October. The night show is weather-dependent and does not run in rain or high wind.
Getting around
Good for a modern Chinese park: wide, flat, paved paths, gentle gradients, electric carts circulating, accessible toilets and step-free routes to the lakeside show area. A wheelchair can cover most of the park and watch the water show from the lakeside. Individual pavilions - including Ziyun Tower's upper levels - are reached by steps. The park is large, so a bad knee should use the carts rather than walk the full circuit.
Worth knowing before you go
Entry-only and entry-plus-show tickets are sold at different prices on different platforms and the figures quoted vary (119-¥120 for packages), so check what your ticket actually includes before paying - go in the late afternoon so you catch both daylight and the water show.
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