Huaqing Hot Spring

Situated at the bottom of Lishan Hills, the Huaqing pool is a well-known scenic spot and the location of hot spring. Being a villa palace and resort for emperors and kings in anceint times, it has a history of more than 3000 years. In the Chinese history, there were five dynasties which related to this scenic site as follows:

Wester Zhou (B. C. 1100 - B. C. 771);
Qin (B. C. 221 - B. C. 206);
Han (B. C. 203 - A. D. 220);
Sui (A. D. 581 - A. D. 618);
Tang (A. D. 618 - A. D. 907);

As early as the Western Zhou period, King Zhouyou had Lishan Palace constructed here. Qin Shihuang built a stone pool named "Fairy's Spring". Both the Han Emperor Widi and Sui Emperor Wendi enlarged it. During the Tang Dynasty, the Emperor Xuanzong ordered large-scale construction by transforming spring wells into pools housed in walled palaces. These were called the "Huaqing Palace" and "the Spring pool". The Tang Emperor Xuanzong and his concubine Lady Yang often came here for pleasure. In the earth-shaking "Xi'an Incident" which took place in Dec. 1936 the patriotic generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng captured the KMT head, Jiang Jieshi. Apart from some well-preserved historical buildings in the Huaqing pool, there are also some magnificent newly built halls and pools such as "the Nine Dragon pool" and "Chenxiang Hall".