Imperial Hotspring Resort is also known as YueWenQuan (Yue in mandarin translates to imperial and wenquan means hotspring). The locals would know this place as YueWenQuan, so it would be good to print out the hotel name and address in Chinese (御温泉).

How to get there.
Because their website is in Chinese and information seems a little sparse on the internet regarding this hotel, it can prove quite daunting to want to stay somewhere this remote. For us, we flew to Macau, took a cab to the Macau/Gongbei border for 90HKD/90RMB. Go through Macau customs, walked about 50m to Gongbei/Zhuhai customs. Once we are through, we went into the shopping mall downstairs (you can see big stairs descending into a bright mall underground). Head another floor down to catch taxi to Dounenzhen (where Imperial hotspring is). It is said in some websites that blue taxi goes to doumen area and yellow (more of green from what i notice) to zhuhai airport BUT in reality it doesnt matter.

The taxis do not go by meter here. Supposedly the taxi rate to Doumen county would be about RMB80. But we offered RMB160 and they took it. The ride is about 45 min - 1 hour from Gongbei border to Imperial. Be forewarned, taxi drivers will not obey traffic rules, so be prepared for a little excitement.

From landing in the airport in Macau to arriving in Imperial, the duration was 2 1/2 hours. FYI, Gongbei border gate/customs closes at 12 midnight.

At Imperial Hotspring
This place has naught to do except to relax. Hotsprings, spas, massages and eating are the main itenerary here. I counted about 22 public hotsprings. There are private hotsprings available if you prefer that (but you have to pay extra). The hotsprings are open 24/7 with routined cleaning every 4 hours so there will be some hotsprings unavailable at times. Please do not expect all the water to be crystal clear. The pool has a green tinge. Some hotsprings are brownish, some are clear, depending on the "flavors".

There wont be poolside/hotspring service. Sometimes they do come to you with water or ginseng tea. Sometimes there are water dispensers where you can get your own water. Sometimes, bath towels run out. But you just have to call one of the many employees running around for them. Do not expect 5 star treatment.

Spa treatments are not inclusive of room price and hotsprings. Full body massage with acupressure and oil on back is RMB198. Full body massage is RMB178, Head, hand and legs massage is RMB98. There are others but I can't remember. There is indoor, outdoor/public and private spa.

The rooms
We booked a room for 6 people. The room is probably about 7m in length by 4m in width. It looked and felt cozy. It has tv, air cond, telephone (calls to receptionist doesnt seem to work), a table that you can "put into the ground" on the sleeping area to make way for the beds. The basin is outside the bathroom. And the bathroom consists of the toilet and shower only. Toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, bath gels, shampoo, conditioner, towels and hairdryer are all provided. The beds are just 6 mattresses stacked in three and we have to pull them down and cover them with sheets provided. Mattresses are laid on an elevated floor and are about 5 inches thick.

Restaurants
There are a number of restaurants in the resort. Some we couldn't even find out how to get to. We mainly ate at the Chinese restaurant which is borderlines between good and average. Breakfast buffet is served here too. The buffet breakfast is NOT westernized. There is bacon, sausages, hardboiled eggs, steamed potatoes, corn and carrots, porridges, rice vermicellis, small selection of dim sum among other selections gravitating towards chinese food. But to us, the food is pretty decent and there are no complaints from us. There is a western restaurant somewhere in the hotel but we didnt try it. There is a little restaurant near the pool which serves sandwiches (with jam), fresh cut fruits and coffee and tea 24/7.

Around Imperial Resort
This resort sits in the rural area so it would be quite a ways out to get to the nearest town (20 min bus ride). To get to the nearest town, take the 609 bus (RMB3 per person) or get a cab. There are locals on motorcycles who offers ride at a price if you want that. Other attractions include a temple on top of the hill (Jin Tao). The taxi will ride up to the main entrance and you have to walk up the stairs to the temple. There seems to be a parking lot at a higher peak so you might be able to get the taxi to go up there. However, it would be best for you to take the taxi drivers card so he can come back to get you at the temple because there are NO taxis there. There are bikes that looks a little like tut-tuts in Thailand but the prices are little exorbitant for that kind of ride in my opinion.

This is YuWenQuan website: http://www.00800.com.cn/

This resort is based in a very poor rural area and the surroundings are unattractive and unsafe for overseas visitors.
Also it has 2 names the original which is well known is Imperial Hot Springs but for some foolish reason the name was changed tp Yuwenquan. This makes it almost impossible to book and their on-line and telephone booking is a disgrace. Even if you are lucky and get someone who speaks a lttle English they will often hold the phone and shout to their colleagues in Chinese and ignore you.

Although there is a shuttle bus for hotel guests it is not convenient as you have to fit with their times and if you wish to go out for an evening to Zhuhai, then it will be necessary to get a taxi both ways which is very expensive. Sometimes it is difficult to get a taxi to take you back late at night as there is no return business for the driver.

The rooms in the hotel are stuffy and smelly and the so called furniture is a joke, the bed is just a cheap thin matress rolled on to the floor and the chairs have no legs. It is pretending to be "Japanese" but from my recent travels to that country such things are only in free museums not overpriced hotels.

The "buffet breakfast" is very poor with almost no consideration for overseas guests, many dishes are cold and there is no fresh orange, tomato or other juices. The coffee is the cheapest packet 3 in 1 mix and the tea is dreadful.

Should you be an average size or larger then beware when you enter the Hot Springs as there are no robes to fit you comfortably and the largest slipper size is a small 43.

The massage staff are usually lazing around in very dirty or untidy clothes and are very unhelpful. Only one girl can speak English so it is impossible to enjoy the massages. Many of these staff carry keys, mobile telephones and other heavy things in their pockets, so when I tried the massage I was hit on the head several times by the objects in their pockets.
Please be advised this is possibly the most expensive massage service in the area and in my experience simply the worst.

Should you try to find the GM or someone high to complain to then good luck as they usually hide away and pretend it did not happen.

This resort in my view should not have any star rating.

Just back from Zhuhai/Macau. It was the rainy season, and unfortunately it rained everyday except the last day of our trip! On the last day, when the sun was finally out, we hired a car and spent half a day at Yu Wen Quan.

Here are the areas which made Yu Wen Quan stand out:
- Cleanliness: its soooo clean that I forget I'm actually in China!
- Service: the service staff were very attentive. We were served with drinks, sheltered with umbrella, asked if everything's ok from time to time.
- Hot spring: The variety! There's bound to be something for everyone, from the Chinese medicinal, floral, salts etc
- Hygiene: The water in the Chinese Herb ponds are being changed every 4 hours! Prob the same for the other ponds. It gives me great assurance!
- Security: We left our valuable with the "security boxes". We had to sign our name and write our contact no when depositing the items. We were also given the key to the box. When its time to collect, we were to sign our names and write our contact no. again, with being able to see what was written previously.

We would love to go back again, and possible stay for a night or two!

My boss had recommended I take my sister for her birthday to one of the hot spring resorts in Zhuhai, it was really difficult to get any good information which is weird seeing as I am living in Hong Kong!!!!

I took the bull by the horns and booked the imperial hot springs resort, we were not disappointed, the service and facilities are amazing. We crossed the border at Macau after spending the night there, which meant we were further away from the resort but we took a taxi from the Macau border and it only cost us £12 and it took nearly an hour to get there. The drive was not pretty, lots of deserted buildings, half finished hotels, some slummy shanty towns, four people on a scooter etc, but when we turned into the imperial spring it was like a little oasis in the middle of nowhere. We were treated like royalty and everyone seemed happy to practice their limited english skills on us! We were the only westerners! At times we felt like the entertainment but we soon got past that.

Our room was fantastic - see photos, they provided us with shoes and robes for the spa, a short toddle along the complex brought us to the spa itself, no cameras allowed alas!
The pools were amazing and getting a fresh towel every time you came out of a pool was like a luxury, tea and water in plentiful supply, massages to die for and cheap as chips, the hot stones were also one of my favourites, everyone was really friendly too. This place is open 24 hours so it is easily doable for a day trip from hong kong too.

We ventured to the chinese restaurant as the western one was closing just as we got there and our food was some of the best that I have tasted in my time here! Again staff were so attentive and friendly and the food was excellent value for money.

I would thoroughly recommend this place, we got back to the Zhouzhou port the next day on the bus provided by the hotel and it was all plain sailing (excuse the pun) did not think that the trip would run so smoothly, yes there is a language barrier but there is always someone who can speak chinglish and if they are not available then they will wake them up! seriously!

Please contact me if you need any further information - happy to help.