Hot spring resorts in China: best places to relax and recuperate in thermal waters as demand for ancient bathing custom explodes

When temperatures dropped in China this winter, the staff at the Kayumanis hot springs resort at the foot of Tangshan mountain near Nanjing braced themselves. Soon, the already busy resort would receive a further flood of enquiries from guests looking to bathe in its private, thermal pools under a romantic flurry of snow.

The travel market for China’s hot springs is one of the fastest growing in the world. Revenues from hot springs trips, which follow the ancient custom of bathing in thermal waters for recuperative effect, more than quadrupled from 22.8 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) in 2006 to 100 billion yuan in 2016, according to online travel agent Ma Feng Wo. Happily for resort owners, cold weather only makes the prospect of a warm bath more enticing.

Get away from it all on Taiwan’s east coast – hot springs, fried flowers, indigenous villages, and mountains

In the past decade, the rural backwater of Tangshan town has transformed into a hot springs tourism hub, thanks to government and commercial investment and a growing need for wellness breaks that offer respite from city life.

Kayumanis opened in 2007. Since then, new roads have been built that cut down travel time from Nanjing, as well as new hotels. Then, at the end of 2017, a dedicated hot springs public park opened, with running and cycle tracks encircling an artificial lake.

A report by Ma Feng Wo says that hot springs resorts were a key travel attraction during the 2018 Spring Festival. According to travel agency Ctrip, the number of their customers who booked hot spring trips in 2017 doubled compared with 2016.

“A decade ago, we were one of the only hotels here,” says Gerry Mola, front office manager for Kayumanis. “We could only see trees out of the windows.”