Anning Hot Spring Town is home to the "No 1 hot spring well in the world". [Photo/IC]

Located in Kunming city, Southwest China's Yunnan province, Anning Hot Spring Town is home to abundant hot spring resources and a host of cultural heritage sites, including a Song Dynasty (960-1279) Buddhist temple, a complex of cliff stone carvings, and an exotic French-style villa owned by a patriotic military general in the Republic of China period. 

The facade of the former residence of Lu Han (1895-1974) in Anning Hot Spring Town. The French architectural styled villa was designated one of the city's foremost protected cultural heritage site in February 2020. [Photo/VCG]

To become a model characteristic town of Yunnan province, the town has leveraged its hot springs as the core of its leisure industry, creating a rural destination that combines health, culture and tourism. 

The town has been creating a sightseeing zone around the Tanglangchuan River to enrich its tourism products. The nearby traffic network has been improved, in part by construction of low-speed lanes on the eastern riverbank and of another that leads directly to cliff stone carvings. A flower sea landscape of 26.67 hectares in the villages located in the zone has been completed. The town will also further facilitate traffic, build tourist footpaths in the Longshan Mountains and Bijia Mountains, and promote the development of special accommodation and paragliding projects.

Anning Hot Spring Town aims to become a livable and ecological tourist destination. [Photo/VCG]

In addition, a hot spring research institute has been set up in the town to further explore the value of hot spring water and its health effects, research and develop hot spring aquatic products and medical health care projects, and promote the development of the hot spring industry.

The town has also built a tourist reception room installed with a digital exhibition gallery, a smart bookstore, and an un-staffed supermarket with face recognition functions. The 5G network and free WiFi are available for easy access to mobile phone applications providing tourism information and services in Yunnan province.