Hua Qing Hot Springs Xi'an

Hua Qing is best known in Chinese history as the pleasure palace of Tang emperor Xuanzong (Ming Huang, personal name Li Longji) and his beloved consort, Yang Guifei. Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Regret," written later in the dynasty, made the story one one of the best-known in all Chinese literature.

The beautiful consort was hated by many for the influence she and her family had obtained over the emperor and the government. In 756, while fleeing the rebellion of An Lushan, the Imperial Bodyguard forced the heartbroken emperor to agree to the death of his beloved (it did him no good; he was forced to abdicate later in the year). Before their sad denouement, it is easy to imagine the imperial lovers frolicking, during happier times, in beautiful settings such as this.