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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Gudou Hot Spring 古兜温泉

I always enjoyed Hot Spring. Apart the beautiful experiences I had in Japan and New Zealand, I was able to take several hot spring baths when I was in Sichuan. That was the cheapest one I have ever made. :-) 10 Yuan for half an hour and a single room for myself. Not bad, isn't it?

That's why I have been thinking to go to Gudou Hot Spring since I arrived in HK. Everybody knows Shanghai is a Metropolis, but the natural sources are quite poor there. There have no mountain, no beach and no hot spring, instead it is equipped with its tallest 100-meter hill, a brown muddy sea and bunches of commercial SPA. There is another thing you might hear about the famous indoor ski yard - a so-called biggest one in Asia. After I have seen the natural ski fields on the top of mountains in Alps, it is really hard for me to enjoy it. Anyway, Let's go back to the Hot Spring issue.

Through China travel agent I got a whole package of hotel, two-way boat tickets and the shuttle bus from the harbor to Gudou Hot Spring ( Xinhui, Guangdong Provience). Early morning at 6:00am we had to get up to catch the 8:45 boat from HK to Doumen. It was the first day of An's New Year Vacation- Jan. 26,2005. There was a big mess in China Hong Kong Harbor City, with lots of boats going to strange places in Guangdong (Canton) where I have never heard about. Once inside the boat, we soon figured out that one third of the people are going to the same destination as we are. Then it took the shuttle bus almost an hour to reach Gudou Hot Spring, in a place of nowhere. Even I see it often but I am still shocked every time when I see this kind of big gap between a place and another just a few of kilometers away. That is what Domen looks like and the surroundings of Gudou Hot Spring. It just looks like I have traced back 30 years ago, very poor countryside.

After we checked in the hotel. I realized that where the hot spring is only resides inside the Hot Spring Valley. But once again a mad local town mayor has built 10 times bigger project than it should be. Outside the Hot Spring Valley there is a human-made lake in the middle with 2 big hotels and a lot of individual villas, which need hundreds of people to fulfill them. Without wasting time stay in the artificial places. An and I, we entered the Hot Spring Valley immediately. Surprisingly I discovered that there are lodgings also inside the valley. It is divided into three quarters: Japanese, Roman (should be doubted) and Tang (Chinese) style. There are many of pools, so we just jump from one to the other. The average temperature is around 38 degree to 42 degree. Luckily we are here in local winter season, which is around 18 degree. Cannot image how people can stand in summer season?? It let me remember that they say the best hot spring experience is when it is snowing having whole body hidden inside the hot spring. Should be really nice.

The 2nd day, we tried mainly the Chinese herbal medicine pools, including strengthen anti-flu, weight reducing and so on. Following please find some photos I have taken there.