Guantang — the hot springs

Hot water by the river

Guantang lies in the hinterland of Qionghai, on the south bank of the Wanquan River at the foot of Baishiling hill, right next to the east-coast motorway exit. The hot-spring area is considered one of the largest and most productive on the island: according to the official survey of 1994, the springs deliver around 10,000 cubic metres a day.

Temperature figures range from just under 70 to 90 degrees depending on the source. The 1994 experts praised the water in the highest terms, as rare in the world and unique on Hainan. In autumn and winter mist hangs over the pools in the morning because the hot water steams in the cooler air.

The officials' pond

Guantang means “officials' pond”, and there are two stories behind the name. The first tells of droughts: when the wells ran dry and the river almost dried up, the hot spring kept bubbling as before. Cooled down, its water irrigated the fields. Officials, landlords and peasants gathered here to pray for rain.

The second story is less pious. The local officials supposedly discovered how pleasantly the peasants bathed in the spring and washed their laundry there. So they had the pool walled in and reserved for themselves. The peasants mockingly called it the “officials' pond” — and the name stuck.

The Tiger Balm king

The springs were already famous at the end of the Qing era. In the 1930s Aw Boon Haw invested here, the Southeast Asian entrepreneur who had grown rich with Tiger Balm and put a lot of money into Chinese projects. This made Guantang known among overseas Chinese too. During the Japanese occupation of Hainan a spa building was planned here.

The heyday came after 1988, when Hainan became a province in its own right. In the 1980s and 1990s the island's first spa hotels sprang up in Guantang, Xinglong and other hot-spring towns. Today resorts, bathhouses and small guesthouses with their own pools line up here.

An island on fault lines

Hainan is an island full of hot springs; geological studies count more than 40. The hottest lie in the south and west, at Qixianling near Baoting and in Lanyang near Danzhou, where the water emerges at over 90 degrees. The island sits on fault zones where groundwater sinks deep, heats up and rises again.

In the north, near Haikou, the same restless underground shows a different face: there are volcanoes that last erupted only a few thousand years ago. See both — the steaming pool here and the crater there — and you get a feel for how young this island is geologically.

What's in the water

Chemically, Guantang is a mildly mineralised thermal water with chloride and bicarbonate; fluoride, silicic acid and strontium are particularly notable. According to the Chinese standard for thermal water it meets the conditions of the highest quality class.

Locals have bathed here for generations — by old tradition against pain, rheumatism, chronic ailments and skin problems. Whether the water really heals is another question. That it does you good you notice after ten minutes.

Why people in China go bathing in winter

Hot-spring bathing is a winter pleasure in China, roughly as skiing is in Europe. In December families from the cold north don't go to the beach but to the hot springs, and some pensioners spend whole weeks at a resort. That's why a thermal hotel forty kilometres from the sea is often fully booked in high season.

For travellers from Europe, Guantang is also the perfect rainy day: sitting in warm water under palm trees while it drizzles is one of the loveliest moments on the island.

Bathing — the right way

The pools are of different temperatures and usually labelled. Best start in the milder ones and stay only a few minutes in the hottest. Drink in between and cool down briefly — the hot water strains the circulation more than you'd think. It's most beautiful at dusk or early in the morning, when steam hangs over the water.

If you want to do something first: Baishiling, the “White Stone Mountain”, is only a few kilometres away and has a trail with a view over the river valley. Up first, then into the hot water — that's what many locals do too. And the Red Detachment of Women memorial park is right next door.