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Lishui, a region celebrated for its scenic beauty, is gaining national recognition for wellness. Recently, the fourth China Wellness Industry Conference unveiled its “2025 Top 100 Chinese Wellness Cities Rankings”, with Lishui securing a spot and ranking within the national top ten for its ecological environment.
This ranking system employs a multi-dimensional evaluation based on 5 primary indicators, 16 secondary indicators, and 32 tertiary indicators to assess cities across the country. Experts from institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the China Research Center on Aging, and Beijing Forestry University contributed to its development.
As the nation’s only prefecture-level city recognized as a “Hometown of Longevity”, a key national contact city for actively addressing population aging, and a model city for healthy urban development, Lishui has consistently been named among the “Top 20 Chinese Cities for Sustainable Wellness Development” for six consecutive years. It has also been designated as a reciprocal wellness travel destination for fellow “Hometowns of Longevity”.
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The wellness industry represents both a vital sector for people's livelihoods and a burgeoning field ripe with developmental opportunities.
Addressing wellness needs across the entire human lifecycle, Lishui leverages its natural ecology and longevity advantages to actively advance initiatives like “Wellness 600” and forest wellness development. It prioritizes the broader health industry, focusing on traditional Chinese medicine healthcare, wellness preservation, elderly care services, and sports leisure.
Currently, by exploring diverse “Wellness+” pathways, Lishui is cultivating leisure and health industries such as “dietary wellness”, “herbal wellness”, “water-based wellness”, “fitness wellness”, “cultural wellness”, and “aerobic wellness”. It is promoting the integration of tourism, experiential activities, healing, and research trips across the entire region, upgrading wellness travel from simple stays to experiential, recuperative, and immersive formats, aiming to become a renowned wellness and travel destination for the Yangtze River Delta and the entire country.
In today's fast-paced world, how can one slow down and achieve mental and physical tranquility? Wellness travel offers deep, personalized experiences during vacations, facilitating relaxation and rejuvenation. Its core lies in “health” and “stay”, emphasizing immersive, long-duration slow-living experiences.
Poetic dwelling, She ethnic culture immersion, TCM health preservation, rejuvenation in ancient villages, exploration of Jianci culture, forest bathing in Baishanzu, subterranean world healing... Recently, the city announced its ten flagship “Wellness Travel” projects, propelling the industry into a new phase characterized by branding, standardization, and clustering.
To pool the efforts for industrial development, 10 units including the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau, the News Media Center, and China Construction Bank Lishui Branch jointly initiated the establishment of the “Lishui Health and Wellness Tourism Alliance”. By integrating the forces of health and wellness institutions, boutique homestays, travel agencies and other parties, it is committed to building a health and wellness ecosystem with interconnected resources and linked services, and working together to promote the high-quality development of the health and wellness industry.
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Boasting a forest coverage rate of 80.3% and reputations like “Oxygen Bar of East China” and “Forest Sea of Southern Zhejiang”, Lishui’s exceptional ecological and geographical advantages provide ideal conditions for forest wellness. The city pioneered a forest wellness action plan nationally, tapping into forest environments, agricultural and forestry products, and leisure resources to actively establish itself as a core forest wellness base for East China, a national innovation hub, and a benchmark for forest wellness development.
“Here, I see greenery outside my window every day, breathe fresh air, and can visit Hongxingping for hot springs. This is true wellness living,” remarked a visitor staying at the Zhongda Langyuan Hotel on Baima Mountain in Suichang County.
The Zhongda Langyuan Hotel, which integrates healthcare, rehabilitation, wellness, and tourism, attracted over 10,000 wellness travelers within just three months of opening. Leveraging local resources like hot springs, the area developed the Baima Mountain Forest Therapy — “King of Herbs Valley” TCM Cuisine — Hongxingping Hot Springs Healthcare tourism route, allowing visitors to “cleanse their lungs”, soothe their eyes, and improve their fitness while enjoying their trip.
Lishui is home to 2,478 varieties of medicinal herbs, accounting for 85% of the province’s total, making it a veritable “natural herb garden”. Currently, TCM herb cultivation spans 329,700 mu across 154 townships. Building on this unique resource endowment, the city focuses on developing the TCM health industry, offering health journeys that combine leisure vacations with TCM wellness, and striving to create a “TCM Rehabilitation and Wellness Destination for the Yangtze River Delta”.
The Yunshanjing Healing Resort Hotel, located within the East China Medicinal Botanical Garden in Liandu District, innovates by integrating dining, accommodation, travel, and research. Through the cross-border fusion of healing, wellness, and medicine, this secluded wooden lodge offers views of herbal valleys from its windows and the scent of herbs by the pillow, becoming a natural sanctuary far from the hustle and bustle.
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Today in Lishui, the oxygen-rich forest environment facilitates “environmental physical nurturing”, TCM resources support specialized services like medicinal cuisine and therapies for “traditional restorative care”, and slow-living streets and artisan workshops foster “mental and spiritual cultivation”. Through resource sharing, complementary advantages, and joint marketing, stakeholders collectively enhance the overall quality and influence of wellness travel, making “Scenic Lishui” a desired haven for more people.
Xiananshan Village in Bihu Town, Liandu District, preserves 42 ancient residential structures from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Its natural setting, embraced by green hills and layered terraces, complements the cultural essence of the “Lishui Mountain Dwelling” brand. The Huanting Xiananshan project revitalizes the ancient village into a comprehensive wellness community integrating ecological healing, TCM health preservation, farming experiences, and cultural research. It offers specialized products like “migratory bird-style stays” and “seasonal wellness packages”, breathing new vitality into the once-dormant village.
The Suichang Geocentric World project transforms a mining cave site into a cultural tourism complex blending adventure, wellness, research, and art. Utilizing a 200-meter-deep underground space reclaimed from mining operations, it integrates hot spring therapy, geological exploration, recreational discovery, and cultural immersion, creating new visions and scenarios for the wellness travel economy. Here, visitors can enjoy physical relaxation from hot springs while finding inner peace and exploratory joy within the tranquil and spectacular subterranean world.
“Leveraging our nationwide network, we will deeply integrate Lishui’s ecological assets with professional wellness services to create warm, high-quality travel products. We aim not only to make guests ‘want to come’ but also, through comprehensive amenities, rich community activities, and attentive service details, make them ‘want to stay indefinitely’,” said Liu Yuhui, Lishui Regional Head of Wuchan Zhongda Jinshi Group, an organization deeply experienced in the senior care sector.
Currently, Lishui is actively planning a series of distinctive, high-quality routes for senior research trips and wellness travel, promoting the integration of tourism, experiences, healing, and research across the region. This effort aims to upgrade wellness travel towards more experiential, recuperative, and immersive models. Simultaneously, the city is accelerating the establishment of regular collaboration mechanisms, deepening cooperation in service standards, information sharing, and resource alignment to jointly build a service system covering the entire travel process, providing seamless, high-quality experiences for more visitors.