Huaqing Palace

Huaqing Palace sits at the foot of Mount Li in Lintong District, built around natural hot springs that Chinese rulers used as a retreat from at least the Qin dynasty, though the complex reached its height under the Tang dynasty when Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756) expanded it into a lavish imperial resort. The site is closely associated with Xuanzong's favorite consort, Yang Guifei, whose romance with the emperor -- and the political turmoil it is blamed for contributing to, including the An Lushan Rebellion -- is commemorated throughout the grounds and in the nightly outdoor performance staged on Nine Dragon Lake. The original Tang buildings were destroyed over the centuries; what stands today is largely reconstructed on the excavated foundations of the Tang bathing halls, including the Lotus Flower Pool used by the emperor and the Begonia Pool associated with Yang Guifei, both viewable through glass-covered excavation pits at their original scale. The grounds also preserve Qing-era pavilions and the walled residence where Chiang Kai-shek was staying during the Xi'an Incident of December 1936, when he was detained by his own generals to force a truce with the Communists against Japanese invasion; bullet marks from the arrest are still visible on a pavilion window frame. The museum presents the site as a layered historical landscape rather than a single-period reconstruction, combining the excavated Tang bath foundations, Qing garden architecture, and 20th-century political history within one walking route around Nine Dragon Lake and up the lower slopes of Mount Li. Restoration since the 1980s has focused on stabilizing the excavated bath foundations under protective glass and maintaining the garden layout rather than rebuilding the vanished Tang palace halls in full.