Huaqing Palace & Song of Everlasting Sorrow

01 I negotiated the taxi fare with rock-paper-scissors

DiDi showed about RMB 20 to Huaqing Palace. A street taxi driver initially asked for RMB 50, then 30. I kept asking for 25.

Finally I suggested: “Rock-paper-scissors. If you win, 30. If I win, 25.” He agreed. I won.

On the way we kept talking through a translation app. He told me that if I already had a show ticket I would not need separate daytime admission to Huaqing Palace, and he was surprised by how much I had paid. I told him I had booked on the same day and the payment was already done. By the time we arrived, we had even added each other on WeChat.

02 I booked Huaqing Palace + the show on Trip.com

I booked both Huaqing Palace admission and the Song of Everlasting Sorrow through Trip.com. My total was about KRW 110,000 (about US$79 at the Aug 19, 2026 exchange rate).

I chose the first performance at 20:10 because I did not want to risk missing the subway after a later show. The central section cost only a modest amount more than the side seats when I booked, so I decided that if I was going to see the show once, I wanted the better view.

View the show on Trip.com →

03 Palace admission and show ticket were checked separately

At the entrance I was sent to the ticket counter. My first printed ticket turned out to be the performance ticket, so I went back and used a translation app to ask about palace admission. The staff issued the separate entry ticket and warned me that daytime admission closed at 19:00.

I then misread 17:30 as 18:30 and rushed inside thinking I had only 30 minutes left. I discovered the mistake later.

When I checked afterward, the show ticket alone did not provide daytime Huaqing Palace admission under the arrangement I used.

04 Huaqing Palace holds both ancient and modern history

After the first view inside the gate, I continued deeper into the grounds and reached the pond and traditional buildings.

From here I followed the path uphill to the site associated with Chiang Kai-shek.

After this area I walked farther, looking for the route that continues up Mount Li (骊山). I skipped the actual climb because I thought I was running short on time.

05 I had misread the time by an hour

On the way back down, I asked another visitor for directions by showing a photo of Yang Guifei. Their directions led me back toward the pond and then across the square to the Yang Guifei statue.

Then I noticed something strange: closing time seemed near, but nobody was rushing.

I checked again. It was not 18:50—it was 17:50. I had been one hour ahead in my head. Half embarrassed and half relieved, I slowed down and explored properly.

Huaqing Palace also preserves the remains of imperial hot-spring baths associated with the Tang court.

06 Waiting for the show gave me my quietest moment of the day

After exploring the palace and hot-spring remains, I still had about two hours before the performance. A shop offered to let me wait inside if I bought a snack box for around RMB 50. I declined and went outside.

At 19:00, daytime visitors were asked to leave the palace grounds before performance guests were admitted again. I sat in the square instead. The sun was setting and someone was busking nearby.

If I had stayed inside the shop, I would have missed this part of the day. After rushing from the Terracotta Army to the mausoleum and then Huaqing Palace, it was the first time I truly slowed down.

07 Know the story before watching Song of Everlasting Sorrow

I queued about 30 minutes before the 20:10 show and entered in roughly 10 minutes. Performers handed out ice cream, and there was some audience interaction before the show began.

This is not a conventional indoor theater production. The palace, mountain, water, lighting, music and large-scale stage effects turn the actual landscape into the set. The place I had walked through during the day became an enormous stage for the story at night.

The audience was lively—children asked questions and people reacted loudly to dramatic scenes. It felt different from theater etiquette in Korea, but the show itself was loud enough that I soon accepted it as part of the local experience.