North Hot Spring 北温泉

About North Hot Spring

North Hot Spring (北温泉) is a hot-spring park and national scenic area on the south bank of the Jialing River's Wentang Gorge (温塘峡) below Jinyun Mountain (缙云山), in the Beibei District (北碚区) of Chongqing.

The spring exists because the Jialing has cut through the Wentang Gorge anticline. Rainwater sinks through karst fissures in the fold, is heated underground and escapes where the river has severed its path. There is one free-flowing vent, discharging about 3,000 tonnes a day at 35 to 37°C, and Chongqing's planning and natural resources bureau classes the water as a low-temperature therapeutic mineral water containing fluorine and strontium.

Water use here began with a temple. In 423, under the Liu Song dynasty, the monk Ciying (慈应) founded Wenquan Temple (温泉寺) as the lower temple of Jinyun Temple (缙云寺), a founding that Chongqing's planning and natural resources bureau treats as the start of hot-spring use in the city. The Mongol ruler Möngke (蒙哥) died at the temple in 1259 after being wounded while attacking Diaoyu Fortress (钓鱼城) in Hezhou (合州), and the temple was rebuilt in 1432 under the Ming. It is now a Chongqing municipal protected heritage site with wooden halls including a Guandi hall, a main Buddha hall and a Guanyin hall.

In 1927 the industrialist Lu Zuofu (卢作孚), then head of the local gorge defence bureau, built the Jialing River Hot Spring Park (嘉陵江温泉公园) around the temple, personally leading the bureau's soldiers in to build it. Within two years it had pavilions, waterside halls, swimming pools and guesthouses, and many of the features seen today date from that period. Chongqing's city administration bureau calls it China's earliest hot-spring theme park. Chiang Kai-shek, Lin Sen (林森) and Zhou Enlai all stayed at the park more than once in the years of the anti-Japanese war. The State Council listed the area in 1982 among China's first national scenic areas, and it was rated 4A in 2002.

What to look for

• Wenquan Temple (温泉寺), founded in 423 and rebuilt in 1432, with its Guandi, main Buddha and Guanyin halls
• The natural hot-spring vent and the pools and bathhouses first added by Lu Zuofu in 1927
• Pavilions, waterside halls and guesthouses from the original Jialing River Hot Spring Park
• The Wentang Gorge of the Jialing River, where the river cuts through the anticline that feeds the spring

Location & getting there

Getting to North Hot Spring

• Search for 北温泉 with 重庆市 and 北碚区.