The pools are fed from a spring in the hills, and the hills are the point. 怀集县 Huáijí Xiàn is the northernmost county of the 肇庆 Zhàoqìng prefecture, a country of limestone, river valleys and low mountains that is still mostly farmland, and its hot springs come out of the rock at temperatures that need cooling before anybody can sit in them. The resorts built around them are compounds rather than hotels: a cluster of outdoor pools at different temperatures, a few indoor ones, rooms in low buildings around a garden, and a restaurant. It is a domestic, unpretentious kind of holiday, and it is popular with families from the delta who come for a weekend of soaking and eating.
The county around the resort is worth the drive on its own. 怀集 is limestone country, with 燕岩 Yànyán, the swallow cave, as its best-known sight, and a scatter of villages built of stone and mud brick in the valleys. There is also 茶秆竹 chágǎnzhú, the local bamboo, and the camellia oil that is pressed on these hillsides and used in the county’s kitchens. None of it is packaged for visitors, which is the appeal: the roads are quiet and the villages are working ones, and the resorts serve as a base rather than as the whole trip.
What the Rooms Are Like
The rooms are hotel-standard and the resorts vary mainly in age and in how the water is handled. The best compounds have a dozen pools graded by temperature from around 38°C to the low 40s, a cold plunge, a herbal pool and a covered one for rain, with the whole set in a planted garden and towels and robes provided. Rooms are in low blocks, usually with a balcony, and the more expensive categories have a private tub fed from the same spring. Older resorts have the same water and dated fittings, which is a fair trade if you are mainly there for the soaking. Ask whether the water in the private tub is genuine spring water or heated tap water, since not every property is honest about it.
Practicalities
Price. A double with access to the public pools runs roughly ¥300 to ¥800 a night, and a room with a private spring-fed tub starts around ¥600 and goes well above that at the top of the range. Day passes to the pools without a room are usually available for ¥80 to ¥180, which is worth knowing if you are passing through.
Address. The resorts are in the hills around 怀集县 Huáijí Xiàn, in the north of 肇庆市 Zhàoqìng Shì, on the roads out of the county town towards the hot-spring valleys. They are spread out, and the drive between them is twenty to forty minutes, so the choice of property effectively chooses which part of the county you see.
Rooms. Ask which pools are included in the room rate and whether the outdoor ones are open in the evening, since the best hour to soak is after dark. Ask whether the private tub is fed from the spring or from the mains. Confirm whether meals are included or whether there is a restaurant on site, because the resorts are not within walking distance of anything else.
Getting there. 怀集县 Huáijí Xiàn is around two hours by road from 肇庆市 Zhàoqìng Shì and roughly three from Guangzhou, and it has its own station on the high-speed line from Guangzhou, which puts the county town around an hour and a half from the city. Most resorts will send a car to the station if asked in advance; without one, the last stretch is a long taxi ride.
flowcloud would say that a hot spring in the north of the prefecture is the one place in Guangdong where being cold is part of the pleasure, since stepping from a 42°C pool into January air is the whole ritual.
Where to stay: in a hot-spring resort in the hills around 怀集县 Huáijí Xiàn, in the north of the 肇庆 Zhàoqìng prefecture, choosing the property by which pools it has rather than by its star rating. Confirm that the private tub is spring-fed if you are paying for one, ask about evening access to the outdoor pools, and arrange the transfer from the high-speed station before you arrive.