Hot Spring Ancient Town

Hot Spring Ancient Town

Hot Spring Ancient Town is located in the eastern part of Kaixian District, Chongqing. It can be reached by taking the Yuwan Expressway and Wanan Expressway, then transferring to a bus from Kaixian to Hot Spring Town. The town is about 22 kilometers from the county seat. It is a natural and cultural destination integrating leisure, entertainment, medical treatment, and health care. It is called “Hot Spring” due to the abundance of thermal springs in the area. Hot Spring Town, anciently known as Wentangjing, is an ancient market town with a history of over two thousand years. The local terrain mainly consists of mountains and hills, with some river valley terraces. The Hot Spring anticline runs east-west across the area, while the Dongli River stretches north-south. The general elevation ranges from 400 to 700 meters, with the highest point being Jigongliang in Leyuan Village (formerly Tianchi Village) at 1,216 meters, and the lowest being along the Dongli River in Baiyu Village at just 190 meters. The Dongli River and its tributaries divide the entire region into five major sections. Larger valleys along the reservoir include County Dam, Dongba Stream, Xujia Dam, and Lijia Dam.

Hot Spring Town is an important passageway connecting Yunyang, Wuxi, Chengkou, eastern Sichuan, southern Shaanxi, and western Hubei. It is 27 kilometers from the county seat of Kaixian and covers an area of 149 square kilometers, including 20,929.5 mu of arable land and 39,000 mu of forest (with 13,100 mu under the Grain for Green program). Established during the Northern Song Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Qingshui County (as recorded in the "Annals of Prefectures and Counties of Sichuan Province"). It was named Wentang Town because of the presence of thermal springs that maintain a constant temperature throughout the year. During the Ming Dynasty, Wentangjing belonged to Hanguo Dongli, and in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period, it was known as Dongli Wentangjing Jia.

The town boasts extremely rich and extractable mineral resources. These mainly include fuel minerals such as bituminous coal and anthracite, with a total reserve of 80 million tons. There are also light chemical raw materials such as gypsum, brine, and pottery clay, as well as abundant building materials like limestone and blue sand. In addition, there is a wealth of tourism resources, featuring numerous developable attractions such as “mountains, water, forests, hot springs, caves, villages, and temples.” Notable among these are the national scenic spot “Fairy Cave,” designated in 1984, and the “Wentang Spring,” recognized as one of the “Famous Springs of Sichuan” in 1994. The serene and rugged Seven-Mile Pool Scenic Area is situated along the picturesque Tanxi River, and the Seven-Mile Pool Covered Bridge, built in the early years of the Qianlong reign and now a county-level protected site, adds historical charm. There are also 40 sites of ancient Han Dynasty salt wells and salt stoves, bearing witness to the historical evolution of Hot Spring Town.