Will be in Taiwan next week looking for work and would like to visit hot springs. Does anyone have any recomendations as to ones worth visiting? I don’t mind having to hike a bit and I prefer natural ones to resorts. However, being low on money, I would really appreciate any info on places that are free or not too expensive. Anywhere in the country is OK.
Thanks for your help
DirtGuy
Yes, going free and natural may become the trend after the health department’s assessment that 40% of hot spring hotels in Taipei did not pass inspections. Some of the biggest resorts were on the list which is appalling.
As for natural springs, try the ones at Wulai, about a half hour from Taipei on the bus (consult the new Lonely Planet).
The public pools at Lengshuikeng in Yangmingshan are free.
The cheapest springs are at the hot spring museum in Beitou. You can take the MRT there. I think it’s NT20 to soak in the public pools.
Again, get the new Lonely Planet. Many hotels have public pools for around NT300 for unlimited use. Often the settings are very nice wiht mountain and even sea vistas.
Further afield there are free outdoor springs near Baling on the North Cross Island Highway. Their name escapes me at the moment.
The outdoor springs in Maolin are excellent and there is a large natural swimming hole formed in the river right beside the springs.
Here’s a China Post article on an outdoor spring in Yangmingshan.
"Our second attempt had failed and now we had invited two friends to join us in our endeavor to find the elusive Bayian Hot Springs.
It was early morning and we had just driven over Yang Ming Shan to where we believed the turnoff to the hot springs should be. The hot spring travel guide said to pass the Tien Lai Hotel and turn left just after the 5.5 km sign. We had driven up and down this stretch road countless times to no avail. The only junction as far as we could see was a few kilometers further down the road.
Today we were in luck
Frankly I wouldn’t use any cheap public or free public springs, unless they’re naturally occuring in a fairly secluded area away from hotels and resorts.
Public springs like the cheap one in Beitou are likely to either be filthy (it’s downstream from a virtual city of resorts and is swarming with people), use recycled water, or be diluted with warm water. If the spring doesn’t have a pungent smell or have a slightly milky quality, I’d stay away from it. And if it’s used by a lot of people on a regular basis, I’d definitely avoid it. Do you think the public places regularly pump in fresh springs? That’s quite expensive. If it’s just warm, clear water, it’s not much more than a warm swimming pool.
I’m not sure about the Wulai public springs. Just make sure they’re not using waste water from springs that have already been used.
Also, the cheaper hotels and resorts tend to have fake springs. This I’ve disovered several times, after having paid, which really sucks. I’d go so far as to say the majority of hot springs in Taiwan are fake. At cheap hotels, it’s the overwhelming majority. Those licenses to use the real springs aren’t cheap.
Sadly, even some of the more costly springs failed recent safety tests. This is a new issue that hopefully will be resolved.
At this time, the industry is in a state of flux. The trend, I would say, is to use springs at high quality resorts which (preferably) have passed inspections. Or, if you can find some out of the way natural springs, that might be worth a shot, though for a visitor to Taiwan, this could be tough to pull off.
If you’re low on money, you might head to Ilan (or Jiao Xi) or Wulai and use springs at a resort that charges for bare bones rooms by the hour. That’s quite cheap, and the quality is decent. But I’d ask to check out the springs first. If they’re not very hot with a strong smell, I’d walk away. (In my experience, the best springs are so hot they need to have a lot of cold water added to avoid burning you.)
BTW, I’ve used springs at probably a dozen different sites in Taiwan, so I’m speaking from direct experience.
Gubo not every hot spring has a pungent smell. It depends on the type of spring. The waters in Taian for example do not have that strong an odor which is why I prefer them to Wulai. And since that area has not been overdeveloped yet you can be quite sure you are getting the real deal. Also, at a place like Guanziling, the mud springs do not have a strong odor nor is the water even clear. It’s muddy looking owing to the high mineral concentrations. Every spring is different. Judging the quality or purity of a resort’s water by it’s smell is naive.
The public springs at the Beitou Museum are new and cleaned every few hours (you have to get out while they clean). They are also run by the city government which may or may not incline you to beleive they are legitimate and safer. The outdoor springs at Wulai are by the river and are formed by people setting up rock barriers to pool natural flows of hot spring water. Bu Lai En, among other Forumosans, is a frequent visitor.
Mixing and recyclcing are problems in a lot of areas. A few years ago the city government discovered that resorts in Beitou were using twice as much hot spring water as could be supplied by the source. Recycling is necessary as is diluting. It doesn’t matter if you are at a big hotel or a small.
Besides, when I mentioned public baths I was including the ones at the big hotels. By public I meant they weren’t private tubs in private rooms but shared with others. Often the public baths at big hotels are outdoors and feature pools of different temperatures and even scents. The views can be spectacular. Even if you are not getting pure hot spring water just relaxing in various pools and under water jets in a mountains setting is worth the price of NT300-400 for unlimited use.
There have been a lot of new hot springs resorts opening up in the past few years along the east coast. Likely you will be getting pretty pure water at these places as they are not overdeveloped.
Renze, just below Taipingshan has very authentic hot springs. There is only one small resort using the springs.
In Sansia a new resort opened not long ago to take advantage of what must be a newly discovered spring. Again, since there is only one resort using the spring the water should be good.
In Aowanda Forest area there are two natural hot springs hidden in remote valleys. Few people are said to visit them as they require a good hike in.
Some Chinese guy is supposed to have a website listing the locations of all the wild hot springs around the island. There are hundreds I believe and new ones pop up all the time because of earthquakes. The ones near Baling were only formed a few years ago and a new one near Xiao Wulai Waterfall was only foudn a year or two ago. So far no foreigners have been able to ascertain its location.
Yes, I think most recycle. That was the point of the recent news aboutt he health tests. Not that they recycle, but that the recycling processes of 40% of them were not sanitary. And this included big resorts, so it’s not just the cheapies.
The outdoor springs at Wulai, are right in the river. You’re bathing where the hot water is bubbling up. Definitley natural.
Is this open now?
Brian
The Renze springs were open in February when I passed through. The outdoor pool is not bad, set up against the mountain, but the private rooms are small and characterless.
I found this article on several hot springs in Taiwan. The Fan Fan ones are natural and supposed to be pretty cool. I passed by the area last spring but didn’t have time to hike up to the pools. The area was very clean and undeveloped, however. Just north of Chilan if I remember correctly.
etaiwannews.com/Travel/2004/ … 377604.htm
Dirtguy, this website has a good overview of Taiwan’s hot springs.
taupohotsprings.com/page.php?PK_PAGE_ID=111
And this page has a good simple tourist map of Beitou, which is just north of Taipei and can be reached by MRT.
Well, the springs originating from the Bei Tou/Yangmingshan area do contain the sulfur that has a strong smell. If you go to a spring in one of these places, or Wulai, I imagine, and it’s clear warm water, I seriously doubt they are 100% hot springs.
Based on my extensive experience in Northern Taiwan, I stand by what I say. And yes, there are fakes in YMS, Jinshan, Wulai, and Beitou. Don’t be naive and believe unscrupulous hotel/resort owners who tell you that their springs are “different” and are supposed to be clear and odor free.
The hotsprings museum in Beitou clearly shows the source of springs in Northern Taiwan, and there aren’t very many. Every hotel/resort draws from a fairly small number of sources.
My experience in Ilan holds the same about the color/smell. Further south than that, I’m not so sure, so you may be right.
Perhaps what you’re experiencing in some other areas (“natural,” free, or whatever) are hot springs with little mineral content. If that’s the case, there isn’t really much benefit to bathing in them except for enjoying a nice hour or so outdoors, which I suppose is fine in its own way.
Regardless, though, people should be very careful about choosing a place to enjoy the springs. Fakes and filthy pools abound. It really bothers me, since the spa/spring scene is one of the things I love most about Taiwan.
Recycling the springs is not necessary or practiced by every hotel. Again, the cheap ones will scam you.
My advice is to spend 5,000 or so to stay at a full resort that includes springs, sauna, steam bath, etc. In fact, I just came back from one, and it was fantastic. Hey, once every couple of months won’t break you. A lot of sloshes here spend that much in one night at a pub.
Believe me, I’ve tried many cheap places, and the experiences were really awful.
But I would like to look a bit more into some outdoor naturally occuring springs in Wulai or elsewhere - away from the crowds and hotels, of course. That sounds quite nice.
Many hot springs (throughout the world) are non-sulphorous.
Wulai is non-sulphorous and odourless.
Brian
Let’s not get into argument here, but it is clear if you read about the springs across taiwan that many are clear and odorless. Even the various springs on Yangmingshan and Beitou have different temperatures and mineral contents.
I think you missed my and Bu’s point about the sanitary conditions at even the top hotels.
[quote]In the foundation’s inspections in November and December, 40 percent of the hot-spring establishments in Taipei were found to have water containing levels of bacteria exceeding official standards.
Eleven of the 29 hot-spring hotels or resorts failed the test. Excessive bacteria were detected in their samples, which means that the water has been polluted by excrement or dirt accumulated inside bathtubs," Hsieh Tian-jen (謝天仁), publisher of the foundation’s magazine, Consumer Reports of Taiwan, told a press conference yesterday.
“These proprietors should apologize to the public and make improvements immediately,” he said.
Several self-proclaimed five-star hot-spring hotels were put on the foundation’s black list, including Landis Resort (中國麗緻飯店) on Yangmingshan, Spring City Resort (春天酒店) in Beitou and Spring Park Hotel (春秋烏來) in Wulai.
Pause Landis (璞石麗緻溫泉會館) in Wulai denounced the foundation’s tests, although the center also failed to pass a water-quality inspection conducted by the Taipei County Government in November."
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Spending NT5000 a night garantees nothing. Recycling is practised by all and sundry where there are too many users for a limited resource. In any case, I agree that a luxury hotel provides a better bathe than a dive even if the water is not entirely pure. My point to Dirtguy is that many of these top end hotels have reasonable day rates if you just want to use the facilities. The topic of this thread is cheap or free hot springs.
Do a little research please. You really don’t know what you’re talking about. The odorless hot springs in Taian, to give but one example, were developed by the Japanese around 1911. They considered the clear, odorless water to be of such high quality the built an officer’s hot spring club there.
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By the way, this article on the testing of hotels seems a lot better than the TT.
etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Socie … 978109.htm
So the super high end Spring Park Urai is okay. At NT13,000 a night it bloody well better be.
[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]In Taian in Miaoli county they were building free outdoor hotspring facilities down by the river but I don’t know if they ever finished them. In any case, I like the facilities at the Sunrise. Big open deck with various pools overlooking a lush valley. Around NT350 for unlimited use. Lots of good hiking in this area too.[/quote]Some more on the free hot springs, the Sunrise hotel and the hiking here;
[Taian in Miaoli County
Edited since I see the admins here can be cool. Doesn’t change my opinion about the mod in this section.
FWIW, apparently the spring water at Wulai is naturally colorless and odorless, as well as non-sulphurous. From a piece I’m just translating right now about Wulai:
“烏來鄉的溫泉屬於碳酸氫鈉泉，無色無味” (The springs of Wulai Township are colorless and odorless, and contain carbonic acid and sodium hydride)
They just found an odorless hot spring 200 yards from my house…
They consider the quality so good they’ve got a 500 home development going up around it at 200,000NT per ping. :fume:
One of the neatest hikes and hot springs destinations is at km mark 59 of the Northern Cross Island highway. There is nothing to mark it’s presence, and the trail head is hard to find. It’s then a very steep 500 meter vertical descent down to the river. If you are one of the lucky few that can actually find it, you’ll see a hot spring waterfall. Pretty impressive stuff and probably not prone to testing/bickering about water quality.
One of the great things about Taiwan is it’s ever-shifting landscape. A major earthquake or flood will unearth a dozen new springs.
Forget the hotels…Go find one in the mountains somewhere. Besides, the pain of getting there makes the soak that much more enjoyable… 
Has anyone been to the springs at Cingcyuan? That’s south of Zhudong on the way to Guanwu.
[quote=“MJB”]They just found an odorless hot spring 200 yards from my house…They consider the quality so good they’ve got a 500 home development going up around it at 200,000NT per ping. :fume:
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I have been told the same thing was done at the nearby golf course then it ran dry and the Japanese went home.
I often see them trying to dig down again. Imagine the panic if there is no hot spring water after the people have paid.
I just checked the flounders where Jefferson was upset.
This is what caused the spat.
I have never done the forum thing before. It really reminds me of school.
New kid gets dumped on.
Prefects (moderators) run around with a superior attitude.
I guess it will eventually end up with red bellies, chinese burns and being locked in the cupboard with burning toast.