Huaqing Hot Springs, in the city of Xi’an, Shaanxi province, which dates back of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – 997), got a new name, on Jan 9, when it became Huaqing Hot Palace, which the operators expect to turn into a scenic spot with Tang cultural characteristics, xinhuanet.com has reported.

Huaqing Hot Springs is in Lintong county, near the Weihe River and with Lishan Mount at its back. It is an imperial palace built on the ruins of Huaqing Palace from the Tang. The spring was used for imperial gardens for 3,000 years. The rulers of the Zhou Dynasty (1122 – 256 BC), as well as the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang regarded it as a geomantic treasure and built palaces on it. It got the name of Huaqing the Xuanzong emperor of the Tang was in power. The old architecture was destroyed by wars and the current palace was built in 1959 and is famous for its hot springs and its Tang Yutang relics, Everlasting Regret Wall, Huan Garden and Pear Garden.

The relics are from the site of the imperial baths and include the Locus Tang, for the Xuanzong emperor; Begonia Tang, for Yang Yuhuan, a high-ranking concubine of Xuanzong; Star Tang, used by the Taizong emperor, second ruler of the Tang; Taizi Tang, for the emperor’s son; and Shangshi Tang, used by imperial staff members.

The Everlasting Regret Wall has an engraving of Mao Zedong’s calligraphy and gets its name from a poem by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang, which tells the story of Xuanzong and Yuhuan, who was Xuanzong’s daughter-in-law and was called to the imperial palace. They loved each other and shared the same interest in music and exchanged love vows. However, the An Shi Rebellion disturbed this happy life and Yuhuan committed suicide. Xuanzong missed her so much that his soul was said to have gone up to the moon palace where Yuhuan lived after death. They expressed their passion for each other and promised to stay in love forever.

The Huan Garden and Five Rooms are where the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911) stayed during a trip to Xi’an. It was also the site of the Xi'an Incident, on Dec 12, 1936, when Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, Kuomintang generals involved in the anti-Japanese struggle, imprisoned Chiang Kai-shek and demanded that he stop the civil war and unite with the Communist Party in fighting the Japanese invaders.

The Pear Garden, also known as the operatic circle, is the first imperial music school, founded by Xuanzong. It used to be a center for music, dance and opera and is honored as the birthplace of Chinese opera.

Source: China Daily