Huaqing Hot Springs- Xi'an, China

Huaqing Pool, or Huaqing Hot Springs (also sometimes called Huaqing Palace), is an ancient hot springs used by many emperors of China to relax and get away from the pressures of public life. The history of Huaqing Pool actually goes back about 3,000 years, but it is still used today as a hot springs and spa. It's a fascinating place for a number of reasons. First of all, it's very scenic. It's located at the base of Lishan Mountain, which gives it an even more serene and relaxing feeling. Huaqing Pool is actually a complex of several buildings, pavilions, pools and gardens. The main pool of the complex, Nine-Dragon Pool, is quite large and is surrounded by several interesting buildings and pavilions, including the bedroom of the emperor Xuan Zong, and the Marble Dragon Boat, which really is made of marble and has two dragon heads at one end. In one end of the pool is a statue of Yang Guifei, emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine and reportedly one of the most beautiful women in ancient China. (The story of Xuan Zong and Yang Guifei is really interesting, and is one of the most well-known stories in Chinese history.) The architecture in the complex is not only interesting, but also quite varied. Most of the buildings have a distinctive imperial look, but there are a few which were built later to enclose the emperors' and concubines' pools, and they have a more modern look to them. The pools the ancient emperors and their concubines and other officials used are no longer filled with water, but they are still intact and look a lot like they did when they were in full use. The garden area, located partly on a hillside, is beautiful, and there are walkways which wind through the garden, with several pavilions along the paths where the emperors and their family members and concubines could go to relax or play games. The paths and pavilions provide a nice view of the garden and pool area. The Hovering Rainbow Bridge spans a small creek and is the link between the pool complex proper and the garden area. Huaqing Pool was also the site of the famous Xian incident of 1936, when Chiang Kai-shek was captured (he was in hiding and had his temporary headquarters there) by his own generals in order to convince him to stop fighting the Communists and start fighting the invading Japanese. You can still see the house on the mountain in which he took refuge before his capture. And the rooms he used (called Five-Room Hall) as his headquarters still have the original furniture in them, which I found to be really fascinating. I thought Huaqing Pool was a fascinating place, and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Xian.

Huaqing Hot Springs, Xi'an

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Huaqing Hot Springs, Xi'an

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Visiting Xi'an?

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