The Hot Spring Resort Where China’s Opening-Up Checked In
中山温泉宾馆 Zhōngshān Wēnquán Bīnguǎn, the Zhongshan Hot Spring Resort, stands at the south foot of 罗三妹山 Luósānmèi Shān in 雍陌村 Yōngmò Cūn, a village of 三乡镇 Sānxiāng Zhèn in the south of 中山市 Zhōngshān Shì – and because Zhongshan is one of China’s county-free prefecture cities, with no counties or districts under it, that town and that village are the address. It is the opening-up era’s first Sino-foreign cooperative hotel, opened on 28 December 1980 after thirteen months of building, and where Deng Xiaoping, coming down the hill in January 1984, said 不走回头路 bù zǒu huítóu lù, no turning back. Today it is a provincial resort zone of 388 rooms, forty-eight soaking pools and mainland China’s first golf club next door.
The founding is the story the house keeps. A December 1978 Macau newspaper report on a tourism zone at 翠亨村 Cuìhēng Cūn brought 霍英东 Huò Yīngdōng to inspect Zhongshan three times; in July 1979 he signed the contract that gave Chinese hotels a new legal form – a 合作 hézuò, a cooperative venture operated jointly with the mainland side, neither an equity joint venture nor a sole foreign investment. Work started in November 1979 and the doors opened on 28 December 1980, thirteen months later; the investors with him were 何鸿燊 Hé Hóngshēn and other Hong Kong and Macau entrepreneurs, the mainstream line this article follows, with one party-history article naming a different pair of partners. The architects were the Lingnan-school masters 莫伯治 Mò Bózhì and 佘畯南 Shé Jùnnán; within two years the house stood among the mainland’s five great hotels.
The hill above the rooms is part of the history. On 28 January 1984 Deng Xiaoping, staying at the hotel, climbed 罗三妹山 Luósānmèi Shān and, coming down, refused the easier return path with the words the chronicle records as 不走回头路, no turning back. The mountain became a free public park in 2011, now a national AAA scenic spot, and in November 2018 Xi Jinping recalled visiting the resort after it opened. In 2021 the province listed the estate as a provincial-level tourism resort zone, the first in Zhongshan.
The water and the grounds are the practical draw. The spring rises from rock two hundred metres down, and the hotel’s own site lists the vent at about 93 degrees Celsius while a Zhongshan web piece puts the outflow at 69.5 and above – both figures are printed here. The hot-spring garden holds forty-eight themed soaking pools around a 2,500-square-metre mountain-spring swimming pool – the Zhongshan Daily’s figure, against the 3,000 on Ctrip guide pages. Next door is 中山温泉高尔夫球会 Zhōngshān Wēnquán Gāo’ěrfū Qiúhuì, mainland China’s first golf club: the Arnold Palmer course opened in August 1984, and the club today lists thirty-six by Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. The spa gardens quoted 105 yuan for an adult on 30 September 2026.
What the Rooms Are Like
A room here is one of several estates within the estate. The central garden, rebuilt and finished in April 2023, holds 151 new rooms in a Lingnan-style compound with room sizes grown from 27 to 43 square metres; the business garden keeps suites with private soaking pools, the 翠亨园 Cuìhēng Yuán has hot-spring suites, and the villas run from a “red classic” No. 1 to six-bedroom houses. The count that matters: 388 is the post-refurbishment figure the Zhongshan Daily group publishes; Trip.com’s property page still shows 119, a stale statistic. Every platform’s “five-star” or “deluxe” tag is a platform description; no government five-star rating notice was found, so this article calls it nothing at all.
Practicalities
Price. On 30 September 2026 the estate quoted from about 1,003 yuan on Ctrip, rated 4.6 across 2,378 reviews, from 450 yuan on 同程 Tóngchéng (650 for the central-garden house) at 4.7, and from 58 US dollars on Trip.com, 9.2 out of 10 across about 2,420 reviews. The spa ticket was 105 yuan for an adult, 208 with the buffet; the 罗三妹山 Luósānmèi Shān park is free. Demand peaks in the winter soaking season and the national holidays. Every figure is a snapshot that floats.
Address. The address anchors to the town and village, as every address in Zhongshan must: 中山市三乡镇雍陌村 Yōngmò Cūn, near provincial road 268, with the old town centre of 石岐 about 24 kilometres north. 雍陌村 Yōngmò Cūn is the home village of the reform-era thinker 郑观应 Zhèng Guānyīng, whose 1903 courtyard house and a display on his 盛世危言 Shèngshì Wēiyán sit in the lanes, and the platforms list the 美宿·雍陌 Měisù Yōngmò guesthouse there from about 155 yuan.
Rooms. Ask which cluster your room sits in – the rebuilt central garden of April 2023, the business garden with the private-pool suites, the 翠亨园 Cuìhēng Yuán or the villas – since the estate is a federation of houses of different vintages. Ask whether the suite pool is private or shared. Ask the room count too: 388 is the current figure, 119 the stale one.
Getting there. 三乡镇 Sānxiāng Zhèn has no railway station, so the last leg is a car or a taxi. The nearest main interchanges are 中山站 Zhōngshān Zhàn and 中山北站 Zhōngshān Běi Zhàn on the 广珠城际 Guǎngzhū Chéngjì – second class to Guangzhou South about 40 yuan and 29 to 40 minutes on the timetable checked on 30 September 2026, with 12306 holding the live version – from either of which the hotel is a 25-to-30-kilometre, half-hour drive. From Shenzhen the 深中通道 Shēn-Zhōng Tōngdào, open since 30 June 2024 – about 24 kilometres, thirty minutes across – puts the hotel about an hour door to door by the estimate here; navigate.
Where to stay: a central-garden room at 中山温泉宾馆 Zhōngshān Wēnquán Bīnguǎn if the 2023 rebuild is the draw, a private-pool suite in the business garden if the soaking is the point, and the 155-yuan guesthouse in 雍陌村 Yōngmò Cūn if the history is the point and the budget is not – all at 三乡镇 Sānxiāng Zhèn, 中山市 Zhōngshān Shì.
flowcloud would say that a hotel built in thirteen months to prove a policy has spent forty years proving it again every morning, and that the correct way to sleep here is on the 1984 mountain’s side of the garden, because the spring was famous before the motto was and will be famous after.