Yanbian Hot Springs

Yanbian Hot Springs are situated in Yanji, the capital of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, the only Korean autonomous region outside the Korean Peninsula, where over 800,000 ethnic Koreans maintain a vibrant Joseonjok (Korean-Chinese) culture of Korean language, cuisine, traditional arts, and customs that has endured across generations since Korean migration to this fertile Manchurian frontier beginning in the nineteenth century. The bicarbonate thermal waters here serve a uniquely bicultural community where Korean and Chinese traditions interweave in everything from the bilingual street signs and Korean-language schools to the distinctive Yanbian cuisine that blends Korean culinary heritage with northeastern Chinese ingredients and cooking methods. Bathing at Yanbian Hot Springs in the heart of China's most distinctively Korean-influenced cultural zone provides a wellness experience enriched by the extraordinary multicultural character of a region where the Korean diaspora has maintained its cultural identity over generations in the volcanic highland landscape of the Changbai Mountain borderlands.