Soaking by the Sea:

Green Island was formed by volcanic eruptions under the seabed. The magma accumulated and cooled, causing a bulge in the Earth’s crust that gradually eroded into the Green Island we know today.

Located 33 kilometers southeast of Taitung, Green Island is just 16 square kilometers in area but possesses a wealth of natural scenery that includes cliffs, reefs, sandy beaches, and grassy fields. Add to that a diverse ecosystem and coastal waters that remain a balmy 26°C year-round, and you have a truly lovely travel destination.

A change of pace

In addition to the tourists who drop in for overnight stays, Green Island also welcomes long-term visitors who come to indulge their dreams of rural living. May Lin is a case in point; after more than 20 years working in the media she retired to open a travel agency. Unfortunately, the emergence of the pandemic in 2020 brought her business to a grinding halt. Originally from Taitung’s Luye Township, and having spent her honeymoon on Green Island, she decided to relocate there, and she became the manager of the Zhaori Hot Springs.

Lin says she hopes to give back to the community by drawing on the examples of Provence, France, which saw its popularity boosted by Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, and Chishang, Taitung County, which has enjoyed its own surge in popularity from its Autumn Rice Harvest Arts Festival.

She tells us that according to local historical chronicles, Green Island’s hot springs were discovered during the Japanese colonial era, before the post-retrocession Nationalist government turned the island into a penal colony for political offenders. The springs’ location beside the Pacific Ocean causes spring water and seawater to intermingle and enables bathers to watch the sun rise over the ocean. The Japanese therefore called these the Asahi (“sunrise”) Hot Springs and believed them to be a place of spiritual healing.

Lin, a globetrotting lover of travel, compares Zhaori Hot Spring to the 2ndfamous Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

Already a four-year resident of the island, she says the local lifestyle has changed her perspective.

As well as running and renovating Zhaori, she and her team have thrown themselves into experiments like organizing beach cleanups and turning the collected marine waste into an art wall; sheltering animals on the hot springs’ grounds; and opening an independent bookshop. She has even drawn on her personal network to bring members of Zen in Dance to perform for the New Year’s holiday and persuade painter Sylvia Yu to come here to paint. Her work has triggered a small Green Island cultural renaissance!

One of the world’s few seaside hot springs, Zhaori Hot Spring’s range of open-air and semi-open pools offer something for everyone.

May Lin came to Green Island to pursue her dreams. (courtesy of May Lin)

Lin Wei-ling, director of the East Coast National Scenic Area, served on Green Island for two years and is intimately familiar with its culture and scenery. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Surrounded by the sea

Zhaori Hot Spring is an important tourism resource for Green Island. According to Lin Wei-ling, director of the East Coast National Scenic Area (ECNSA), roughly 60–70% of tourists visiting the island stop in at the springs for a soak.

The springs are closely connected to the geology that earned Green Island its old name of “Burning Island.” Located on the island’s southeast side, they are driven by magma heating both seawater and groundwater. This causes the hot spring water to surge up from beneath the seafloor, giving rise to what locals call the “boiling shallows.”

The chloride–sulfate spring water is colorless and odorless, has a temperature of 60–70℃, and contains small quantities of minerals and other rare substances that stimulate the metabolism of bathers.

Friendlier than the generally highly commercialized hot springs districts on Taiwan, the springs’ opening time is adjusted daily to align with the sunrise. May Lin notes that a trip to the largely open-air facility provides more than just a hot-spring soak; it’s more like a visit to a sea bath. The baths are ungendered and therefore require bathing suits to be worn, and full access to all of the facilities costs only NT$100.

Notably, the water for the springs is pumped from below the seafloor, allowed to settle briefly, and then added to the pools as needed. This mostly direct pumping of spring water into the pools makes the baths here among the most natural available.

The three open-air pools built among tidal pools on the seashore are the facility’s most popular attraction. Each has its own temperature, making the experience similar to that of a spa. Visitors can soak in the hot pool for 15 minutes, take a quick break, and then move to the cold pool. The facility includes eight other semi-open hot-spring and swimming pools that are popular with families.

There is also a pool dedicated to cooking. The spring water’s salt content and sub-boiling temperature produces tasty soft-yolked hot-spring eggs. The cooking pool’s popularity extends beyond tourists: locals can often be found cooking up large baskets of eggs, corn and shrimp that they take home to eat.