Huaqing
Da Tang Huaqing City
Once upon a time, Lintong represented Xi'an's tourist attractions, the most popular being the Terracotta Army, the eighth wonder of the world. Its size, the number of burial pits and the richness of its contents once shocked the world. Sharing the same name with the Terracotta Warriors is Huaqing Pond. In the year of the Twelve Hours of Chang'an, the prototype of the spa palace to which the sages and the Yangs aspired was the Huaqing Pond, also known as the Huaqing Palace.
I don't know how many times I've been to Lintong. I remember that every time I took bus No. 306 and passed by Huaqing Pond, I saw the ruins in front of the scenic spot. Now that I'm here again, the ruins have turned into a square, which is today's Huaqing City of the Great Tang Dynasty. Datang Huaqing City is actually a large square, which can also be understood as a tourist transit station. The statue in the middle of the square is a dance form of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei.
If you come here by car, don't drive directly to Huaqing Pond, but continue to the square. It is more convenient to park here with fewer people, but out of the parking lot, all the way out there will be the words "Hua Qing Chi Entrance". In fact, from the scenic spot is still far away, because the merchants in the square just to attract you to pass by their stores. If you don't want to spend money, you can walk all the way to the entrance of the scenic spot.
Huaqingchi Square
Dreaming of the Tang Dynasty
In the play "Twelve Hours of Chang'an," Li Bi once said, "The sage will leave all the world's affairs in the hands of his right-hand minister, Lin Jiulang, and the sage himself will leave Chang'an and live long in a hot-spring palace on Mount Li. "The same place of this hot spring palace is today's Huaqing Pond in Lintong. Huaqing Palace was the largest departure palace in Chang'an City during the Tang Dynasty. What is a detached palace? It literally means a palace built outside the capital city for the emperor to live in permanently, and it also refers to the place where the emperor lived when he was on tour.
Legend has it that the Huaqing Pond more than 1,000 years ago was on a grand scale, and the palace at that time was even more luxurious than the imperial palace of the Tang Dynasty. Every emperor was a hedonist. The earliest use of the Huaqing Palace was for the Tang emperors to escape the summer heat and the cold. It was a natural resting place, built on Mount Li, with a backdrop of mountains and water. The buildings we see in Huaqing Pond today were built later, but we can still see the outstanding talent of the Tang architects of the time. Such a huge complex was built on the mountain, but it was not at all chaotic. The top and bottom are staggered, and the buildings are staggered, taking full advantage of the geography of Mount Li and enjoying the prosperity of the river and mountains.
Panoramic aerial shot of Huaqing Pond
To facilitate the emperor's travel between Lintong and Chang'an, a special road was built at that time to connect Huaqing Pond, Xingqing Palace and Daming Palace. To this day, emperors attend court at Daming Palace in the morning, visit Xingqing Palace in the afternoon, and go to Huaqing Pond to soak in the hot springs in the evening. It's so beautiful. The architecture of Huaqingchi also skillfully utilized the topography of Mount Li, and the building was very three-dimensional. When the emperor climbed this mountain, he could see the beautiful scenery of Chang'an, which fulfilled the emperor's wish. All the other mountains looked dwarfed under the sky .
Huachi Hibiscus Hall
The heyday of Huachi, the outlying palace, was when Emperor Xuanzong was in power. It is said that he traveled here every October, "a thousand flags were taken by Yuan Ye, and the clouds and trees glowed," and "eighty-one cars must be ridden, and there were feasts night after night." From such a statement, we can see that the scale of the trip was so large that all the administrative organs of Chang'an were moved to Huaqingchi, which became the second Chang'an City. At that time, Li Longji had already visited Huaqingchi 43 times in his 45-year reign.
Huaqi Changsheng Store
Huaqi Changsheng Store
Li Longji built Huaqing Pond for his own amusement, but once upon a time, the Anshi Rebellion shattered his dream. After a sudden political change in the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fell from the stage of history, and Huaqing Palace rapidly declined. Emperors after the Tang Dynasty paid little attention to the Huaqing Palace. By the Song Dynasty, the buildings of Huaqing Pond were in a state of disrepair. Then in the Yuan Dynasty, someone organized private forces and spent 15 years to repair Huaqing Pond. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the original buildings of Huaqing Pond had long disappeared, and it was not until 1959, after the liberation, that the government started to build it, and we saw the beautiful Huaqing Pond today.
The First Hot Spring in the World
Besides the magnificent Tang Dynasty architecture, the most famous part of Huaqing is the hot spring. According to historical records, the original Huaqing Palace, with its back to Mount Li and facing the Wei River, was built with the hot springs as the center of a huge palace built on Mount Li. Even in the Tang Dynasty, there were many hot springs in China. Why did Emperor Xuanzong at that time only love the hot springs of Huaqing Pond? "But the spring nights are short, the sun rises too early, and the emperor has since abandoned his morning court", what is the charm of the first spring in the world?
Huaqingchi Hot Spring
We all know that Mount Li is an attraction, but what we don't know is that Mount Li is actually a volcano! Don't be nervous. You've never heard of Mount Li erupting, have you? Yes, Mount Li is an extinct volcano, rich in geothermal resources, and the hot spring water near the volcano is rich in a variety of minerals, which has a therapeutic effect on the human body. However, in ancient times, there was no running water, let alone hot springs. Drinking water was a luxury, so soaking in hot springs was a wonderful thing that only emperors could enjoy at that time.
Ruins of Hibiscus Pond
Ruins of Lotus Pond
Ruins of Star Pond
Today, in the Huaching Lake scenic area, we can still see the old sites of the royal soup pools, including Tang Xuanzong's Lotus Soup, Yang Guifei's Begonia Soup and Tang Taizong's Star Soup. Not only Tang Xuanzong liked to take a bath here, but also King Youwang of Zhou and Qin Shi Huang before the Tang Dynasty. It wasn't until the time of Tang Xuanzong that the emperor built a palace here so that he could have a warm place to spend the winter.
Shangchi Ruins
Bathing is bliss, and it is a great honor to have the opportunity to bathe with the emperor. In one corner of the site is the ruins of a Shangshi Pond, which was used for bathing by officials who provided the imperial food and other officials during the Tang Dynasty. This Tang pool is separated from the adjacent Tang Taizong bathing pool by a stone. There is also a hot spring story related to Yang Guifei. It is said that at that time, Yang Guifei suffered a forehead injury and it was getting worse. Because the hot springs in Huaqing Pond contained sulfur, she needed to be rinsed with hot spring water to help her recover from the injury.
Statue of Yang Guifei
Today, hot spring water still gushes out of Huaqing Pond. If you want to feel the charm of the hot springs, you can take a bath at Hua Qing Yu Tang Resort Hotel to feel the emperor's vision and enjoy the glorious hot spring experience service.
The Xi'an incident occurred.
During the Republican period, Chiang Kai-shek traveled to Shaanxi twice and stayed at the Huaqing Palace, where he planned various high-level military meetings. It was here that Chiang came up with his famously flawed national policy of "quiet before fighting". At a time of national crisis, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, two patriotic generals, launched the Xi'an Incident, which shocked the world.
Xi'an Incident Gunshot Holes
The holes left by the incident can still be seen in the building glass here today. Of course, Yang Hucheng intended to capture Chiang Kai-shek here, who panicked and fled to Alexandria, where he was finally captured at Binjiange, opening a chapter of national **** cooperation.
The once-in-a-lifetime stage play "The Song of Long Hate"
Huaqing Pond has a tragic beauty, from Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei. It is a long narrative poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, which vividly recounts the love tragedy between Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei. The scenic spot has also designed a famous domestic stage play, The Song of Long Hatred, based on this poem.
In the real place where the historical story took place, the art form of dance drama expresses the theme of love expressed in the famous poem "Song of Everlasting Hatred" by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, as well as the love vows between Tang and Ya
Tickets for "Song of Everlasting Hatred": if you want to see the night show of "Song of Everlasting Hatred," you need to buy extra tickets. The Long Hate Song is performed from April 1 to October 31 every year, with each performance lasting 70 minutes. Prices range from 268 RMB per person to 368 RMB per person, depending on the seats.
Opening Hours:
High Season: March 1-November 30 07:00-19:00; Low Season: December 1-February 28/29 07:30-18:00. (Note that the scenic spot will be cleared out at 6:30 p.m. when there's a performance of the Song of Everlasting Hatred as the Song of Everlasting Hatred is an additional charge. By the way, don't think you can hide in the restroom without being noticed.)
Transportation guide:
Driving: If you are driving, take the West Highway to Lintong in less than half an hour, then follow the main road to Huaqingchi. Remember to park in the square below, no traffic jam.
Bus: You can also take bus 306 or 307 at the train station to the scenic spot.