Taiping National Forest Park

This guide to Taiping National Forest Park near Xi'an starts with what a modern ticket costs, and what that same access once required: the valley takes its name from a palace an emperor of the Sui dynasty is said to have built here between 581 and 618, drawing the Tang court back summer after summer to escape the heat baking Chang'an below. You'll hear how the valley's cooler climate made it a retreat only nobility could claim for well over a thousand years, until the state folded it into a forest reserve in 1958. It became a national park open to any paying visitor in December 2004.