Tang Paradise is a theme park, built to look like the Royal Garden at Qujiang Lake. The centerpeice of this garden was the Ziyun Tower Block, recreated here. The real one was built in 726 AD. The Ziyun (Purple Cloud) Tower is on the northern side of a large courtyard. To either side are smaller towers connected to it by high arching bridges. In front of it, the courtyard is paved with a giant map of Tang Dynasty China, while the back entrance of the tower is a stone staircase leading down to the lake.

This is the view from the top of the Ziyun Tower, looking down over one of the side towers at the lake. It is said that one of the Tang emperors enjoyed coming to this garden during the Qujiang Fair every year. He would stand here at the railing and look over the garden wall to watch his subjects celebrating and enjoying themsleves. If one of those subjects was sharp-eyed, he might catch a glimpse of the emperor as well. And if you are sharp-eyed, perhaps you can see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the distance at the left side of this picture.

Statues of lions are seen all over China, most often guarding doorways. This is a reproduction of a lion found in front of the tomb of the mother of Empress Wu Zetian. Empress Wu Zetian ruled from 690-705, and was the only female emperor China has ever had.

If Deanna had been a bride in the Tang Dynasty, she would have been carried to her new husband's home in a sedan chair like this one. The name of this chair is jiaozi, but it is a different character and is pronounced with a different tone than the popular dumpling of the same name.

A public park now covers the grounds of the Tang Dynasty Xing Qing Palace, where we enjoyed a leisurly stroll one afternoon. All the buildings are reproductions, but are built in the Tang Dynasty style. This is CaiYun Jian, or Colorful Cloud Room, a tower on an island in the lake there. We stopped to listen to the birds sing in this wooded area, and saw a lovely bird with a yellow breast called huang li niao.

One section of the park was brightly decorated in anticipation of the upcoming Lantern Festival. This holiday falls on the first full moon after the lunar New Year, and marks the end of the New Year festivities. Although the Chinese had celebrated Lantern festival for 800 years by the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the displays became much grander and the lanterns more elaborate in keeping with the splendor of that dynasty.

We noticed several of these trees in Xing Qing Park, and were intrigued by the twisted limbs and trunk. Although we don't know what kind of tree they are, consensus among people we asked was that they grow that way naturally, without any human intervention. This garden remains a lovely park today, and we are sure the imperial family enjoyed the time they spent there. You can see a map of what it looked like during the Tang Dynasty on one of the steles posted on our "Forest of Steles" page.

Hua Qing Hotsprings lies to the east of Xi'an, at the foot of Mount Lishan. Although the hotsprings were used by Chinese emperors as far back as 700 BC, they are most closely associated with the Tang Dynasty. This model shows the imperial palace at its greatest extent in 747 AD. I was curious about why there was a hotsprings in this area, until I realized that all of China has been affected by the on-going collision of the Indian Sub-continent with Asia.

The emperor still had foreign emissaries and policy decisions to attend to, even while relaxing at the hotsprings. However, there was an emperor who was not so diligent. Emperor Xuanzong often came to enjoy the hotsprings with his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei, becoming so infatuated that he neglected his duties. During a resulting uprising, the emperor was forced to flee the capital, but his troops refused to accompany him if Lady Yang came too. Outside the city gate, she was forced to commit suicide.

The actual bathing pools were only discovered in 1982, and are still a unique historical site in China. This is the Lotus Pool, where the emperor swam and bathed. Although the ornamentation is gone, the engineering feat of circulating the hotsprings water is still evident. The water came to the emperor's pool from the hotsprings, and from there it was piped to other pools. In the officials' pool, those with higher rank were allowed to use the part of the pool nearest the intake pipe, thus getting to use the water from the emperor's pool before the lesser officials.

Of course we couldn't take a trip in China without taking a picture of a moon door. This one is in the garden on the east side of the hotsprings, and the path leads up to Mount Lishan. This garden also plays a role in modern history. It was here that Dowager Empress Cixi fled when Western powers were in Beijing putting down the Boxer Rebellion. Also, Chiang Kai Shek was staying here in 1936 when subordinates kidnapped him, forcing him to co-operate with the Communists in resisting the Japanese invasion of China.

Copyright 2006, Dr. Lee Williams

Last Modified: 13 February 2006

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