Huaqing Hot Springs

Way back when, when concubines flourished in Imperial China, a stone pool was built around a hot spring at the base of Li Mountain. This was somewhere between 221-206 B.C. in the Qin Dynasty. Throughout the next 1000 and some years, emperors kept enlarging this pool and building others around it, making more space for their beautiful ladies to bathe. Today, the restored hot springs palace is another tourist attraction close to the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor who united China 2200 years ago.

I loved visiting the hot springs because of the mountains surrounding them! We’d been stuck in the city for 2 weeks, so it was refreshing to get out and see some natural beauty. The Qinling Range was green, luscious, and misty, just like I was hoping to see in China. There was a ski-lift transporting people to the top of the mountain where there is a Taoist temple. I would have absolutely loved to go up there, but alas, we didn’t have enough time scheduled into our day for that. We just got to wander around and see the various pools and reconstructed buildings.