Huaqing Hot Springs has been a favourite spa since the Tang dynasty. For centuries emperors had come here to bathe and enjoy the scenic beauty. The more energetic visitors may climb some or all of Li Mountain, on which are situated several Taoist and Buddhist temples. A cable car has now been installed to make this possible for everyone. None of the buildings in the grounds are particularly important. Although many of them are named after Tang halls and pavilions, they were built either at the end of the last century or during this one.

Huaqing Hot Springs can be conveniently visited on returning from the Terracotta Army site. A principal pleasure spot for Chinese tourists, the place is often busy, especially on Sundays.

The resort dates back to the Western Zhou when construction began on a series of pleasure resort palaces at the hot springs site, which is 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Xi'an, at the foot of Black Horse Mountain. The First Emperor of Qin had a residence there, as did Han Wudi, the Martial Emperor. In more recent times even Chiang Kai-shek used some of the buildings. However, the strongest associations are with the Tang: Black Horse Mountain is still covered with the pine and cypress trees planted by Tang Xuanzong, and the present buildings have a Tang atmosphere. Taizong commissioned his architect Yan Lide to design a palace, the Tangquan, in 644 CE. It became the favourite resort of Xuanzong who spent every winter there from 745 to 755 CE in the company of Yang Guifei, the Imperial Concubine (see page 196). The resort was greatly enlarged in 747 CE and renamed Huaqing Palace. The complex was destroyed at the end of the Tang. However, imperial bathing pools from this period (618?07 CE), lost for almost a millennium, were discovered in 1982 by workmen renovating the Guifei Pavilion. They uncovered remains of palace architecture, including lotus-shaped roof tile-ends and four bathing pools-the Star, Long, Lotus and Guifei pools. The Guifei or Hibiscus Pool, dating from 712?56 CE, has now been restored and is open to the public-but for viewing, not for bathing. It is a terraced structure with a central, empty, pool in the shape of a Chinese crab-apple blossom. The fountainhead, designed to represent the stamens of a flower, is a reproduction of the original.

THE SITE OF THE XI'AN INCIDENT

The Five Chamber Building, just behind the Imperial Concubine's Bath, contains the bedroom used by Chiang Kai-shek on the eve of the Xi'an Incident of 1936-also known as the Double Twelfth Incident as it happened on 12th December (see page 192). As the rebellious troops of Zhang Xueliang showered the pavilion with gunfire, Chiang escaped through a window and over the back wall. The broken panes of the windows can still be seen. Chiang was captured hours later on Li Mountain. His hiding place is now marked by an iron chain. The pavilion commemorating his capture was originally erected by the Nationalists to celebrate their leader's escape.

THE XI'AN INCIDENT

Xi'an has always been known to the Chinese as a city rich with history, but it only gained recognition in much of the Western world in 1936 when Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped there by some of his own generals.

The Xi'an Incident, as it became known, held the leadership of China hanging in the balance for a couple of tension-wracked weeks. An intriguing sequence of events brought on the kidnapping and its solution. In 1936, while Hitler marched in Europe, the Japanese army was steadily tightening its grip on China. Chiang Kai-shek was not so much in control as simply being at the top of a fragile coalition of Chinese warlords and armies spread over China. The Communists had escaped Chiang's pursuit on the Long March and established themselves securely at Yan'an, in the mountains north of Xi'an.

Chiang knew that a head-on conflict with the Japanese army would, if not demolish him, at least weaken his position, and make him vulnerable to the communists. He decided to appease the Japanese instead, and send many of his troops to fight the Communists.

But for Zhang Xueliang, one of Chiang's allied generals, this policy of footdragging against the Japanese was unacceptable. A bright and courageous young general, Zhang was head of a Manchurian army and was incensed at the way his home in northeast China had been overrun by the Japanese since 1931. Zhang saw the situation deteriorating further in 1936, when the Japanese made a dramatic attack into Suiyan, a key area north of Beijing. On 4 December, a Nationalist attack on the Communists failed, resulting in a widespread refusal amongst Chiang's troops to continue fighting. Chiang flew to Xi'an to direct the campaign himself.

Zhang saw this as an ideal moment to make a move. He discreetly made contact with the Communists and at dawn on 12 December, his troops surrounded the palace at Huaqing Hot Springs, where Chiang was quartered. Hearing gunfire, Chiang escaped barefoot in his nightshirt-leaving his dentures behind-scaled a wall, injuring his back, and scurried up an old path on Black Horse Mountain. Thirty of his men were killed defending him. Zhang's officers combed the area, and one of them found their Generalissimo later that afternoon, shivering and in pain, crouched in a crevice between the rocks. As the officer moved to bind Chiang's hands, the Generalissimo reminded his captor that he was the Commander-in-Chief. The officer is said to have bowed politely to Chiang and replied, 'You are also our prisoner.'

Two weeks of tough negotiations followed. Chiang and his formidable wife, Soong May-ling, were on one side, with Zhang and Zhou Enlai, later Communist China's premier, on the other, while the rest of China waited impatiently. Many of the Communist leaders wanted to execute Chiang, or at least keep him imprisoned. But a cable arrived from Moscow with an order from Stalin to release Chiang and get on with the task of fighting the Japanese. The Chinese Communists bristled at being told by 'Uncle Joe' how to handle what they saw as their own affair. But they also knew they could win some useful concessions out of Chiang if they released him.

In the end, a compromise was reached. Chiang was allowed to fly back to Nanjing a free man, but had to give up the pretence of being the sole leader of China. Ostensibly he joined with the Communists in a 'National Front' against the Japanese. Zhang Xueliang, also went back to Nanjing as a prisoner of Chiang's and was branded a traitor.

The visitor to Huaqing Hot Springs can still see the site of this famous incident. The rooms where Chiang stayed and worked are marked, as is the spot up the hill where the Generalissimo was actually caught. The hiding place is marked by a chain and nearby, commemorating the capture, is a pavilion of dignified Grecian structure.