Photo by Uchinaaguchi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇹🇼 Taiwan · Taipei
♨ Temperature
55°C
⛰ Altitude
28 m
⚗ pH
1.5
💧 TDS
980 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
12 L/s
📅 Established
1896
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Beitou is a volcanic hot spring district at the foot of Datun Mountain, integrated into the northern edge of Taipei. Its springs produce three distinct water types: the milky-green acidic 'green sulphur spring' (pH 1.2–1.5, the rarest type), the sodium bicarbonate 'white spring', and the radium-bearing waters that deposit hokutolite — a mineral found only in Beitou and a single location in Japan's Akita Prefecture. Japanese colonial administrators developed the district from 1896, building public bathhouses modelled on Japanese onsen culture; the 1913 Beitou Public Bathhouse is now a preserved historical monument and hot spring museum. The Xinbeitou MRT station sits at the district entrance, making Beitou the most transit-accessible hot spring destination of any major Asian city.
| Sulphur (H₂S) | 38.5 mg/L |
| Radium (trace) | 0.002 mg/L |
| Sodium | 142 mg/L |
| Chloride | 98 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 210 mg/L |
The Beitou Public Bathhouse (1913) is one of the oldest surviving examples of Japanese colonial public architecture in Taiwan and is now a designated historical monument. The discovery of hokutolite — a unique radium-bearing mineral — in Beitou's springs in 1905 placed the district in international scientific literature.
Beitou's identity is inseparable from the Japanese onsen tradition transplanted during the colonial period (1895–1945). The district blends Japanese bathhouse architecture with Taiwanese street food culture, creating a neighbourhood where 19th-century stone bathhouses sit beside modern boutique hotels and outdoor public foot-bath channels open to passersby.
Beitou's springs flow from volcanic fumarolic activity on Datun Mountain, which is part of the Yangmingshan National Park — a protected volcanic landscape. Spring water allocation is regulated by the Taipei City Government to prevent overextraction. The public MRT connection means Beitou is one of the lowest-carbon thermal destinations in Asia.
Websitewww.taipeitravel.net/en/hot-spring.html
AddressXinbeitou District, Taipei City, Taiwan 112