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[Outbound]: Tangshan Hot Springs

Bit nippy out. Big chilly here in Shanghai... But the hot springs in Tangshan on the outskirts of Nanjing are a couple of hours away.
Last updated: 2015-11-09


It won’t have escaped your notice how miserably cold it is outside. And inside, and everywhere else. January is hideous in Shanghai, with nothing much going on and the sort of weather that would make Bobby McFerrin strap on a homemade bomb. But the hot springs at Tangshan, on the outskirts of Nanjing, are only a couple of hours away by train. Gasp at their splendor!



Tianshan is one of the four sites in China considered to have genuine natural hot springs. In imperial times, the whole area used to be reserved for the use of the royal family and their goons. The mountain is studded with resorts, all of which offer access to the Feichuan (Boiling Spring) that bubbles up from the earth below. The spring water is rich in minerals and thought to be good for treating skin complaints. Whatever… they had me at “Boiling”.

The resorts get nicer the higher up the mountain you go. I checked into the Regalia Resort & Spa. They have 100 rooms, some of which have their own hot spring tubs, either in the room or out on the balcony. If you book into one of the cheaper rooms (from 1350rmb per night in the week or 1650rmb at weekends), you can book a few hours in the hot springs spa underneath the hotel. That runs to 180rmb per hour, per person for a private room with a tub that could fit about four or five. The rooms look like this:



However, if you plan on spending the entire weekend in the hot tub, it’s going to be more economical to book a room with its own hot springs pipeline. You can get digs with an indoor tub for 2100rmb in the week or 2400rmb at weekends (though you may find cheaper deals online). A villa with its own tub on the balcony is more like 2800rmb / 3200rmb. They also have a two-room villa that would work for groups of up to four, which works out a bit more affordable at 3800rmb / 4500rmb, and that's got its own swimming pool. This is what the villa rooms look like. And the tub on the balcony.




Pretty palatial: huge beds, cable TV, products from L’Occitane in spacious bathrooms. These villas are a little walk away from the main hotel so they feel nicely remote. The flipside of that is that the WiFi is painfully slow, at least during my stay, so if you need zippy internet, you end up crouching in the lobby. Better to check this and make sure you get a room with a fast connection when you check in if you need it.

The hot springs tubs are fed directly by the underground springs and not heated by the hotel. This means that the water temperature varies at different times of the day and on the whim on the great and beastly mountain god. However, baths also have regular heated water so you can top up the spring water if it’s not hot enough for you.



While I was there, it snowed — proper snow that settled and covered everything in chintzy wonderfulness. This meant that I could sit on my balcony submerged in steaming hot water from the spring while gusts of snow blew around me. It was like something from an old Chinese movie, and really a rather sublime experience, sitting there while the wind howled and snow flakes turned to steam in a cloud around my head.

Apart from the springs, the hotel has a high-end spa offering Thai-influenced and aromatherapy treatments from around 750rmb / hour. Then there’s a games room, a cinema, various mahjong parlors and KTV rooms. It’s all very Chinese and self-contained. The hotel is busy, too. It was booked out during my stay, mainly with Chinese families from Nanjing and beyond who were making good use of the facilities, the bar, the games rooms, the cinema. All of that provides a nice distraction, but I’d advise spending most of your time getting cozy in the rooms.



That said, the surrounding countryside is attractive and the hotel offers free use of bikes so you can explore the rest of the mountain. That's probably an activity better suited to spring time. I intended to go for a ride but never made it out of the hotel’s grounds. Just too damn cold.

When things do warm up, there’s also this outdoor area where you can bathe in Japanese tubs, and there’s a pool, though that’s not filled with spring water, just the regular kind.



There’s only one restaurant in the hotel. Rooms come with breakfast, which is served buffet-style, Chinese and Western, with a little egg station where they’ll whip up some fresh fluffy omelets if you desire. Lunch and dinner is a la carte, or they do a set meal for 128rmb, which has three or four dishes. Beer is a little pricey, though, with bottles of Qingdao and Corona something like 48rmb, plus 15%. That soon adds up. My advice would be to fuel up on that good breakfast and then head off-campus for an early dinner at a local restaurant. The hotel staff will provide you with a list of nearby spots.

Get back from dinner early and there’s time to take another long soak. If you’ve got your own hot tub you can sit in there all night and no one will bother you. Open a bottle of wine, lie back in the steam and dream of warmer times.



Getting There:


Trains run to Nanjing every 10 minutes or so from Hongqiao Station (135rmb each way). You want a G train, an express, which takes about two hours. There are enough trains that you can turn up and get on the next one if you’re disorganized and can’t get around to buying tickets in advance. However, that means you have to queue up to buy a ticket from a window, which could take 30 minutes or more. Don’t queue for the machines, the lines are faster but those without a Chinese ID can’t use them to buy a ticket.

Trains are fast and comfortable, but the other end you’ll need to take a taxi to the mountain. That takes about 30 minutes and costs around 90rmb on the meter, or the hotel provides free pick up and drop off if you make a reservation and tell them when you're due to arrive.

Door to door, you’re probably looking at a three-and-a-half-hour journey, which means this is only really worth it if you’ve got two nights to spend at the springs. It’s a little too far to go for a single night, no matter how badly your sorry bones need warming up.

For the website of the Regalia Resort & Spa (Tangshan, Nanjing), go here. To book and contact go here. Or call the reservation number: 400-115-3388.

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