Not yet at boiling point

A hotspring pool at Tangfeng Hot Springs in Wuyi county. [Photo by Yang Feiyue/China Daily]

It's a county yet it's called a city of hot springs by the authorities. There are 13 hot springs in the 1,577-square-kilometer Wuyi county in the heart of Zhejiang province.

The hot springs can provide more than 24,000 tons of water a day, local officials say.

But as of now only two sources have been tapped and roughly 4,000 cubic meters of water from the hot springs is supplied to local facilities every day.

"Still, the (current) amount puts many other getaways with hot springs in the shade," an official says.

Hot spring facilities elsewhere have supplies running into hundreds of cubic meters at best, he says.

Wuyi has well-paved wide streets crisscrossing the county. And a short trek up a tortuous road leads me to Tangfeng Hot Springs, one of the few major facilities in Wuyi.

At night, dim polychromatic lights suffuse the various open-air hot spring pools, each of which is well-separated from the other ones by tall trees and thick bushes.

It is like being in a garden typical of those south of the Yangtze River.

My visit is in late February, a perfect time to enjoy hot springs since there is still a chill in the air but it is not bitterly cold.

Typically, the most popular season to visit hot springs is from October to May.