Qujiang Pool: Tang Chang'an's Pleasure Water, Today a Heritage Park

World Travel 编辑部 · 2026-09-16 · 5 min read

In Tang Chang'an people went out to Qujiang in spring for waterside outings — the water lay southeast of the city. More than a thousand years later the water is still there, only under a new name: Qujiang Pool Heritage Park, the northwest's first large landscape-style heritage park combining conservation, gardens, water and leisure.

Fifteen hundred mu around the water

The park lies in Yanta District, Xi'an, covering 1,500 mu as an open cultural park. It centres on the water of Qujiang Pool and divides into eight scenic areas, an unusually large water-based park for the northwest.

Its stated idea is to present high Tang culture and embody ecological nature; through two locations, three sections and four clusters in dialogue with one another, it creates a landscape of "layered green woods and brimming green water".

Why it belongs to a larger area

On 14 January 2011 the "Xi'an Giant Wild Goose Pagoda – Tang Paradise Scenic Area", which includes Qujiang Pool Heritage Park, was rated a national 5A scenic area. It is therefore not an isolated park but part of a single Tang-culture district — which is also why moving between it, the pagoda and Tang Paradise is so easy.

How to walk it

Qujiang rewards slow walking rather than ticking off sights. The circuit is long, so pick a stretch along the water and stop where the view opens out. In good evening light the layers of water and trees read most clearly.

Practical Notes

It shares a district with Tang Paradise, the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and Qinglong Temple; half a day to a day covers them.
The lakeside path is long — choose sections by fitness rather than completing the loop.
The park is open, with morning exercisers and night runners; watch for them.