Tengchong travel guide

2–4 hours · ¥10; Rehai hot spring adult combo ticket ¥288 9:00–18:00

Soaking in the hot springs here will make your trip worthwhile. Rehai is surrounded by numerous sanatoriums, bathhouses and entertainment facilities, so you can easily indulge your desire for a soak. Bubbling vents and hot springs of every kind are found throughout the area. Ten spring clusters have water temperatures above 90°C, and the geysers gush noisily. Such dense geothermal wonders are rare indeed. Legend has it that a cow once fell into the “Great Boiling Pot” and was cooked down to a skeleton before villagers discovered it. In the past, nearby villagers would fetch water on the spot to slaughter chickens and pigs, which was very convenient; the area was practically a natural kitchen. Here you can also see “eggs sold strung together,” one of the “Eighteen Oddities of Yunnan.”

1–2 days · Entrance ¥55; sightseeing bus ticket ¥10; Impressions on Water boat ticket ¥60

Almost every household here displays a Roman clock, an English door, a Czech lampshade or a German basin. Heshun people even slip off to the library to read while doing farm work. As early as 1936, the town had already launched its own magazine. All of this seems quite different from an ordinary rural ancient town, yet it is precisely Heshun's mysterious charm. Heshun lies on the southwestern frontier and opened to the outside world more than 400 years ago. Its people travelled far, not only to Burma and South Asia but also across the oceans to Europe, the Americas and Oceania. They brought back all sorts of novelties along with Western ideas and culture, and in Heshun, Chinese and Western cultures have blended harmoniously. Untouched by excessive commercialisation, the town retains a simple, unpretentious atmosphere, making it a model of what an ancient town should be.