Tang imperialhot springs,without the show-mob.

Questions worth
answering early.

• Is Huaqing worth the half-day add to the Warriors morning?

  Yes, if your companions have any interest in Tang-dynasty history or the events of 1936. The bath complex itself is a half-hour for the headline rooms; the depth is in the Five-Room Hall and the Lishan ascent. Travellers who are tight on time and primarily interested in archaeological sites are usually better served by spending the afternoon at the Shaanxi History Museum back in Xi'an. We tell you honestly which fits before you book.

• Should I go in the morning or the afternoon?

  Afternoon, after 14:00. The day-tour buses from Xi'an arrive between 09:30 and 13:00 and combine Huaqing with a Warriors visit on the same circuit, which fills the bath ruins. By 14:00 the buses have moved on and the complex is quiet enough to hear the guide. The light on the painted eaves is also at its best in late afternoon.

• Is the evening Song of Everlasting Sorrow show worth it?

  The musical is a large-scale outdoor production retelling the love story of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, staged on the natural slope of Lishan. It is genuinely impressive in its scale; it is also an hour-plus queue at the gate and a different brand of experience to the daytime site visit. We can book the show as an add-on for travellers who want both, but we do not recommend it as the main reason to come. The daytime visit is the substance.

• What about the Lishan cable car?

  Worth the time if it is a clear day. The cable car climbs about three hundred metres up the hillside above the palace, to the Daoist temple at the summit and the actual warm-water spring that feeds the bath complex below. About twenty minutes up, an hour at the top including the temple and the spring, twenty minutes back. The view across the Wei valley is the photograph; the spring is the point. Skip it if the sky is closed in or your companions are tight on legs.

• Is there a way to bathe in the actual hot springs?

  Not in the historical complex itself. Those baths are archaeological ruins under reconstruction roofs, not in service. Several hotels on the property and in Lintong district offer guests access to private hot-spring pools fed by the same aquifer; we can arrange a stay or a half-day spa visit at one of these if it suits your trip. The bath you sit in is modern; the water source is the same.