(Beijing weekend)
Updated: 2007-05-18 09:25

Tianlongyuan's geothermal pools and evening stage shows make this super-spa a hotspot for wet and wild weekends. Upon entry (158 yuan), visitors change into pajamas, shower and entertain the option of full-body massages starting at 45 yuan per hour. Once washed up and rubbed down, patrons can plunge into the pools.

In the main room, puddle-jumpers can hop from a temperate, full-sized lap pool to another such body of water with a wave machine and to several smaller waterholes warmed by the bowels of the earth. The room also features a three-storey waterslide, which shoots swimmers down its incline at breakneck speed.

Flanking this main area are two smaller rooms - one built according to Buddhist style and the other designed for Taoists - warehousing a number of smaller pools. These rooms are ornately tiled and laid out according to traditional symbology. The Taoist area, for example, includes two pools arranged to form the image of interlocked yin and yang shapes. Both also feature traditional-style pagodas and full-wall windows, allowing spa-goers to simultaneously soak in the warm water and the view of the nearby mountains of Changping District.

The Taoist area also includes a sauna with geode-studded walls, a heated waterfall and several stone spouts carved into the shape of dragons' heads spewing streams of warm water for funsters to stand under.

The other rooms of this three-floor palace of pleasure also proffer places for table tennis, billiards and karaoke, as well as a sizeable buffet. But it's all eyes onstage at 8 pm, when the main pool area turns into an auditorium, and pajama-clad punters file into geothermally heated stone bleachers to catch the cabaret show. The show begins with a video projected on fountain spray and goes on to showcase Russian ice-skating ballet, tap dancing and traditional Chinese dances. The second half features acrobatics performed on a three-storey rope hung from the ceiling and swung around by a performer on the ground, and underwater choreography performed in a glass box filled with water.

Newbies to Beijing's spa scene looking to plunge into this locally popular pastime will find that Tianlongyuan is a perfect place to test the waters.

Tianlongyuan Spa

Address:Changping District. To get there, take bus 919 (Nankou branch) at Deshengmen and get off at Jiuxian; to drive, take the Badaling Expressway to take Exit 13, then turn west from Lizicheng Roundabout.
Tel: 010-8010-0088 Ext 1118.