Huaqing Pool

HuaqingPool is located in the Lintong District around 30 kilometers east to urban area of Xi’an. For Huaqing Pool, Lishan Mountain lies to its south and the Wei River to its north. This geographical condition boasts the natural hot springs. The favorable geographical advantages and natural environment make it one of the cradles where ancient people settled. Huaqing Pool is located at the foot of the Lishan Mountain, a branch range of the Qinling Ranges, and stands 1,256 metres high. It is covered with pines and cypresses, looking very much like a like a dark green galloping horse from a long distance. According to the history, the Western Zhou dynasty, Lishan Palace was constructed and it’s on the spot. In the Qin dynasty, a pool was built in the Lishan Palace with stones, and was given the name Lishan Hot Spring. The site was extended into a palace in the Han dynasty, and renamed the Lishan Palace (the Resort Palace). In the Tang dynasty, Li Shimin (Emperor Tai Zong) ordered to construct the Hot Spring Palace, and Emperor Xuan Zong had a walled palace built around Lishan Mountain in the year of 747. It was known as the Huaqing Palace. It also had the name Huaqing Pool on account of its location on the hot springs. According to historical records and archaeological the Huaqing Pool has a history of 6000 years for the use of hot springs and a history of 3000 years of royal gardens.

Overall view of Huaqing Pool
Photo by Shirley Zhang
Credit: I took it by myself on Sept. 2008

This amazing place also embedded a really romantic love story.

Actually,  Lady Yang was Emperor Xuan Zong’s daughter-in-law. That sounds ridiculous, isn’t it? Lady Yang was only 22 years old when she married to Emperor Xuan Zong, who was already a 56-year-old. He knew that Lady Yang liked leechee a lot. In order to make Lady Yang happy, Emperor Xuan Zong demanded his soldiers pick up leechee and send it back to Chang’an as fast as possible to keep it fresh. However, it’s uncountable that how many horses died on the way because of long distance and fast running. Emperor Xuan Zong loved Lady Yang so much, no matter where he went, he always took her beside himself. Huaqing Pool was built for Lady Yang to take a bath. It was originally built with white jade, and in its center blooming flower spouted water like a spring. The pool looked very much like a Chinese flowering crab apple; Hence its name the Chinese Flowering Crab apple Hot Spring or the Lotus Hot Spring. At that time, the history of Huaqing Pool reached its climax. Later on, there was a huge war happened, all the official told Emperor Xuan Zong to kill Lady Yang because Lady Yang had a really bad influence on Xuan Zong. Xuan Zong had to kill her. After that Xuan Zong was extremely miserable and cried for such a long time.

Overview of Huaqing Pool
Photo by Shirley Zhang
Credit: I took it by myself on Sept. 2008

Today, Huaqing Pool is famous for its story and attractes visitors because of its four hot springs. They have an hourly flow of 112 tons, and a constant temperature of 43°C. The spring water contains lime, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate and other minerals, which makes it suitable for bathing and considerable treatment of quite a few diseases such as dermatitis, rheumatism, arthritis and muscular pain.  

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