Tourists enjoy themselves in a hot spring in Chongqing [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, a city famous for its delicious hotpots, is planning to develop a chain of world-class hot spring resorts.

As the first hot spring city officially acknowledged by the World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy, Chongqing has the country's most abundant hot springs and geothermal resources spread over mountains and valleys.

"We have a proved minable area of up to 10,000 square kilometers and 146 potential hot springs resorts distributed in almost every county," said Qin Dingbo, deputy head of the municipal commission of tourism development.

In response to the municipal government, all the counties and districts have been carrying out fast-tracked measures to upgrade local hot spring layouts, local media reported in Chongqing on May 22.

Currently, there are over 40 featured hot spring hotels and resorts in Chongqing. They can receive a maximum number of 400,000 tourists on a daily base.

"However, we still have a long way to go if we want to catch up with world-famous hot spring cities such as Budapest, the capital of Hungary," noted Wang Qi, general-secretary of the Chongqing Hotspring Association.

In the next three years, Chongqing will seize global publicity opportunities and embrace overseas tourists, host history-themed hot spring festivals and integrate modern tourism with culture heritages to build up a "hot spring metropolis of the world".

"By the end of 2020, Chongqing will have a world-class hotspring valley, two health-care centers, three national scenic spots, four pilot hotspring bases and 60 hot spring resorts," according to tourism commissioner Qin.