Chilbo Hot Springs

Chilbo Hot Springs lie in the shadow of Mount Chilbo — the Seven Treasures Mountain — one of North Korea's most scenic protected areas, whose peaks and valleys of unusual granite formations, waterfalls, and coastal cliffs have been celebrated in Korean poetry and painting for centuries under the same aesthetic tradition that reveres the Diamond Mountains to the south. The springs serve a remote corner of North Hamgyong Province on the country's northeastern coast, accessible to the small number of visitors permitted to travel to areas outside Pyongyang in a country that remains one of the world's most isolated nations. Bathing in Chilbo's geothermal waters offers an experience set against mountain scenery of exceptional natural beauty within a cultural and political context unlike any other spa destination on Earth.