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| Forest of Stone Steles Museum |
Once
the site of the Temple of Confucius during the Northern Song dynasty
(960-1127), the Forest of Stone Steles Museum is situated on Sanxue
Street, near the south gate of Xian City Wall. It was ...
| Huaqing Hot Springs |
| |
 Situated
at the northern foot of Mt. Lishan in Lintong County, 30 kilometers
(18.6 miles) from Xian City, Huaqing Hot Spring is famed for both its
dainty spring scenery and the romantic love story of Emperor Xuanzong
(685-762) and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
Its long history and location among the wonderful landscapes of Xian
should entice any visitor to visit and bathe in this hot spring.
It
is said that King You built a palace here during the Western Zhou
Dynasty (11th century BC-711 BC). Additions were subsequently made by
the First Emperor Qing (259 BC-210BC) and Emperor Wu during the Western
Han Dynasty (206 BC-24). During his reign, the Emperor Xuanzong spent
dizzying amounts of his funds to build a luxurious palace, changing its
name to Huaqing Hot Spring or Huaqing Palace. Over the course of 41
years in his days, he visited the palace as many as 36 times. The palace
thus has a history of 3,000 years and the hotspring a history of 6,000
years! Ranked among the Hundred Famous Garden in China, it is also has
the status as a National Cultural Relic Protection Unit and a National
Key Scenic Area.
A Visit to the Huaqing Hot Spring
Entering
the gate which bears the inscription 'Huaqing Chi' (Huaqing Hot Spring)
by Guo Moruo, a noted literary in China, visitors are greeted by two
towering cedars. By continuing inward passing two symmetrical
palace-style plunge baths and turning right, you will see the
Nine-Dragon Lake. Despite the fact that the lake is artificial with an
area of 5,300 square meters (6339 square yards), it constitutes one of
the main enchanting sceneries in the Huaqing Palace. You will see lotus
floating on the water and emitting sweet fragrance, and a white marble
statue of Yang Guifei - recognised as one of the four most beautiful
women in ancient China - stands tall by the lake like a shy and
appealing fairy. Mirrored in the lake you will see a surrounding complex
of constructions interspersed with willows and rocks, including Frost
Flying Hall (Feishuang Hall) in the north, Yichun Hall and Chenxiang
Hall respectively in the east and west as well as Nine Bend Corridor and
Dragon Marble Boat. The magnificent Frost Flying Hall used to be the
bedroom of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, with red supporting pillars
and fine-patterned carving. Living in a place so full of spice must
have made the inhabitants invigorated and pleased.
Walking
southwards through Dragon Marble Boat and several pavilions, you will
find the Site of Imperial Pool, which is the only one of its kind to be
discovered in China. The five remaining pools are the Lotus Pool,
Haitang Pool, Shangshi Pool, Star Pool and Prince Pool. The lotus-like
Lotus Pool was made for the Emperors' bath, the Haitang Pool resembling a
Chinese Crabapple was intended for concubines, and the Shangshi Pool
was designated for officials. It is said that the former Star Pool had
no roof and nothing to cover its four sides. There, must have been
possible to truly experience the eternal beauty of Yang Guifei.
Huan
Garden is the former garden of the Huaqing Palace. There lie the Lotus
Pavilion, Viewing Lake Tower (Wanghu Lou), Flying Rainbow Bridge
(Feihong Qiao), Flying Glow Hall (Feixia Ge), and Five-Room Hall (Wujian
Ting). In popular legend, the Flying Glow Hall was once the place where
Yang Guifei would overlook the scenery and cool down her long hair. The
Five-Room Hall was built in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was
the shelter of Empress Dowager Cixi after the Eight-Power Allied Force
captured Peking in 1900, and was also the temporary residence of Chiang
Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party during the
world-famous Xian Incidence in 1936. The Huan Garden also features a
large-scale mural carrying the inscription 'Yang Guifei Was Summoned to
Serve the Emperor in Huaqing Hot Spring'. Composed of 90 white marbles,
the mural is 9.15 meters (30 feet) long and 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) high.
Depicting the scene of the feast in which Emperor Xuanzong summoned
Yang Guifei, it reflects the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. Odes of
Huaqing Hot Spring are also witnesses of past politics, economy and art.
By
visiting the Huaqing Hot Spring, you will not only enjoy the scenery,
but also taste the joy of imagining yourself back in the days of the
Tang Dynasty.
The first pleasure to
experience is to have a bath in the imitational Guifei Pool. With an
even temperature of 43 degree (109 F), the ever-flowing water of the hot
spring contains minerals and organic materials that have therapeutic
effects on the skin. Water originating from four spring reaches a
discharge level of 112 tons per hour. In the bath pool, you can
experience the same comfort as did the Emperor Xuanzong or Yang Guifei.
After
the discovery of remains of Tang operas and entertainments, the
Exhibition Hall of Tang Art was built in 1995. Here, you can enjoy dance
performances imitating the Tang style and a Chinese tea ceremony in the
teahouse.
In the palace of Huaqing Hot
Spring, visitors who are interested in calligraphy will be delighted to
discover the inscriptions collected there. Currently, the inscriptions
include in total 7 steles, 16 stones with poems, 7 stone inscriptions, 4
stone carving, and an additional 69 tablets discovered in 1949. All of
them represent elite work in the field of calligraphy art and materials
of their kinds.
Since Huaqing Hot Spring
is located at the foot of Mt. Lishan with remains of ancient buildings
such as a beacon tower of Western Zhou Dynasty and the Old Mother Hall
of the Tang Dynasty, there are many legends and allusions about it.
Among them, the most famous and profound one is about Misusing the
Beacon Tower to Tease Vassals.
It
happened in the Western Zhou Dynasty during the reign of fatuous King
You. At first, he ruled his state relatively peacefully and prosperously
and allied with the neighboring feoffs by using a beacon tower in case
of invasion of other ethnic groups. If an incident occurred, he could
light the fire on the tower as a signal, and then his allies would come
to help. However, everything changed after he asked a small country,
Bao, to pay the beauty Bao Si in tribute.
After
Bao Si, who was extremely charming, moved into his palace, she started
missing her parents a lot and never presented a single smile. To please
her, the King made her the new queen and gave her plenty of largess, but
she kept her long face intact and remained taciturn. In lack of another
solution, a treacherous court official called Guo Shifu suggested
lighting the fire on the beacon tower in order to fool the vassals of
other states. King You brought his favorite queen to the beacon tower
and followed Guo Shifu's advice. Upon seeing the flame licking the sky,
troops of allied feoffs hurried to the tower. To their surprise, they
discovered nothing more dangerous than the laughter of King You and Bao
Si, so they returned to their feoffs in sulking dismay.
Seeing
the happy smile of Bao Si, King You delightedly rewarded Guo Shifu with
a thousand taels of gold. After that, he and his queen played with the
beacon tower several times, and each time, the troops would leave
disappointed. One day, the ethnic group 'Quan Rong' presented a real
threat to the kingdom. The King immediately set the beacon tower on
fire, but this time, the troops no longer believed him and never showed
up in defence. The King was killed and his queen was captured, thus
ending the Western Zhou Dynasty.
This story gave birth to the idioms 'A smile values a thousand taels of gold' and 'Misusing beacon tower to tease vassals'.
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| Shaanxi History Museum |
| Shaanxi
Province is the birthplace of the ancient Chinese civilization. Xian
City was the capital city in thirteen dynasties which in total lasted
over 1100 years. Consequently, the ancient history .. |
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