October 16th, 2018

Chongqing, China

 

With the vigorous support of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, the First International Symposium on Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy Tourism in China is held on October 16 of 2018.

It is jointly launched by World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy (hereinafter referred to as FEMTEC), China Hot Spring Tourism Association (hereinafter referred to as CHTA), Chongqing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Meteorological Bureau of Chongqing, Beibei District People's Government of Chongqing City and Chongqing Hot Spring Tour Association, and attracts many hot spring and climatotherapy experts, scholars, entrepreneurs, media and relevant practitioners from China, Italy, Russia, Japan, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland to gather together in Beibei District, Chongqing.

 

The following consensuses are reached on the Symposium:

 

1.Hot spring is an international resource that is spread all over the world.

Hot spring is a precious and generous gift provided by the nature of human beings. Hot springs are not only a kind of water resources, thermal energy resources, and mineral resources, but also one type of health resources.

Let us express our gratitude to hot springs and collaborate with each other to vehemently protect hot springs. Therefore, hot springs will be utilized for a longer time and benefit the mankind in a sustainable manner.

 

2.Since the ancient times, human beings have forged an indissoluble bound with hot springs.

Nowadays, people from over 100 countries and regions are protecting and utilizing hot spring resources in various manners.

During the continuous processes of exploring, recognizing, advocating and utilizing hot springs, the mankind has gradually established the Eastern and the Western hot spring cultural contexts, and regional and national hot spring cultural systems with different features.

Undoubtedly, health is the common property and the core value of the World Thermalism Culture.

According to experiments and practices of utilizing hot springs in over 2,000 years, a scientific and appropriate utilization of hot spring resources, which is combined with climatotherapy and other naturopathy, can promote health, prevent diseases and even provide auxiliary treatments for some chronic diseases.

Besides, such diseases later demonstrate an obviously enhancing recovery effect. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) specifically recommends hot springs as one kind of Traditional & Complementary medicines (T&C) in the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014-2023 published at Macao of China in 2013. Firmly believing in the health value of hot springs, we are willing to make unremitting efforts to promote human beings’ health through hot springs.

 

3.As one kind of medical resources, the Balneotherapy has gradually experienced continuous developments and extensive applications in Europe since the 14th Century. As the development of Thermal Medicine in Europe reached a peak in the 19th Century and at the beginning of the 20th Century, the definition of Thermalism that is based on the Balneotherapy with health as its core value was widely spread and practiced.

The recent 20 years have witnessed rapid developments of and remarkable achievements by hot spring tours featuring sightseeing and leisure in China.

China’s hot spring tourism has emerged as a potential sector among the global hot spring circle. As one vice-chairman member country of FEMTEC since 2009, the China Hot Springs Tourism Association has closely cooperated with FEMTEC and persistently popularized & implemented the Thermalism in China, thus China’s new era of hot spring health tourism being created.

FEMTEC and China Hot Springs Tourism Association agree that, on the basis of the Thermalism, the combination between Hydrotherapy & Climatotherapy originating from Europe and the Oriental naturopathy involving traditional Chinese medicines is integrated to flourishing hot spring health tours, which will inevitably add totally new contents and inject the immense vitality into the Thermalism and drive the Thermalism towards an unprecedented climax.

 

4. Geological and climate environments where people live are closely bound up with human beings’ survivals and developments.

Climates can even determine human beings’ fates. For thousands of years, both the Eastern and the Western have developed methods and systems of preventing diseases and strengthening human beings’ health through climate and geological environments, such as climatotherapy, terrain therapy, thalassotherapy and environmental medicines originating from Europe; the “Hot Spring Cure” Culture originating from Japan; Fengshui, astronomical medicines in traditional Chinese medicines and Taoist medicines, and Four-season & 24-Solar-Term Well-beings originating from China.

Originating from Europe and flourishing in Japan and east Asian countries, forest bathing, forest recuperation and forest medicines are the latest achievements of promoting human beings’ health through advantageous natural environments and ecological systems.

We believe that hot springs will exert a more effective effect on promoting human beings’ health based on an organic combination and a reasonable collocation of traditional and complementary therapies, such as the thermalism hydrotherapy & climatotherapy and forest recuperation.

 

5.The contemporary medicine in the world has entered into an integrative medicine era.

We are willing to abide by the definition of health given by WHO, respond to the call of “Each Person Enjoys Health”, focus on the comprehensive health of human beings’ hearts and social interactions and promote the health of the mankind by developing the hot spring and climatotherapy tourism.

We think that ancient and traditional medicine wisdom represented by “preventive treatment of diseases” of traditional Chinese medicines enlightens the development of modern preventive medicines.

We advocate that individuals should adopt more responsible, active, subjective and healthy behaviors, carry out prevention-oriented healthy living manners through hot springs & climatotherapy and jointly create a healthy and harmonious society that benefiting the whole world.

 

6.We recognize that Chongqing is the ideal choice to build a “world-class hot spring tourist city and Thermalism Hydrotherapy resort”, due to its extremely abundant hot spring resources, beautiful natural landscapes, time-honored histories and cultures, strong market radiations, diversified climates, advantageous geological locations and three-dimensional transportation systems approaching to the whole world.

In the year of A.D. 423, the Buddhist monk Ci Ying led to build the Hot Spring Temple beside hot springs at the western bank of Wentang Gorge, which is located at the foot of Jinyun Mountain, Chongqing, and there began the history of Chongqing’s hot spring.

Based on its hot spring development history of nearly 1,600 years, Chongqing has formed a hot spring layout of “Ten Hot Springs in Five Directions”, “Hundreds of Hot Springs in One Circle” and “Many Hot Springs in Two Directions”, expanding the sphere of hot springs from one point to the whole city.

In 2012, Chongqing was awarded the title of “The Capital of World Hot springs” by FEMTEC, which greatly promoted the development of the hot spring tour industry in Chongqing. By virtue of unique three-dimensional climate advantages, hot springs are increasingly compatible with climatotherapy, which generates a large number of tourist resorts and climatotherapy clusters across Chongqing.

We think that, by virtue of mutual efforts and global accumulated resources, it’s of ground-breaking significance for the development of the world hot spring industry to establish one hot spring industry cluster base - “Hot Spring Valley” - that bears international demonstration significance, a combination of hot springs and climatotherapy and an integrated development of hot springs and cultural tours and that is open to the future.

 

7.We firmly believe that, as the Global Hot Spring Capital, Chongqing will act as a bridge between Eastern and Western hot spring circles to promote specific exchanges and cooperation and integrated developments and undertake both the mission of leading innovative developments of global hot springs and the exemplary responsibility.

We will spare no efforts to support and expect Chongqing to become an international model with the integration of Oriental and Western hot spring cultures and the compounding development of hot spring tours & well-being.

People engaged in the global hot spring industry meet, know and cooperate with each other in Chongqing. In the name of World Thermalism Hydrotherapy & Climatotherapy, let us start in Chongqing and jointly exploit markets of Asia-Pacific regions and the whole world, making newer and greater contributions to all human beings’ health and welfare.