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Yanxi Onsen Stay Yanxi Onsen Stay
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A timber inn deep in the mountain mist

Before you leave the mountain,slow your days down

Yanxi keeps only four guest rooms. Shoes come off at the door, warm towels wait beneath the eaves, and spring steam drifts up behind the stone wall. Time here keeps pace with the charcoal fire.

Explore the rooms Call to reserve

One night · Dinner & breakfast · Reservations by phone

The entrance of Yanxi at dusk: warm paper lanterns by the stone steps, thin mist and spring steam behind the house I'm home
Slippers lined up by size on the stone floor of the entryway, a plain door curtain hanging beside them

Our way of hosting

Stay as if you were back at your grandmother's

No lobby, no luggage carousel. The stone slabs in the entryway are worn smooth, the slippers are lined up by size, and the sitting room begins the moment you lift the curtain over the door. Most people say something closer to "I'm home" than "excuse me".

Everything takes the time it takes: the bath is coaxed warm, the rice steams slowly over a wood fire, and after nine only the low lamps along the corridor floor stay lit. The quieter it gets, the closer the conversation.

Rooms

Four rooms, four faces of the mountain

Every room has its own hot-spring bath or foot bath, and the rate includes dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning.

A tatami room facing the creek, shoji fully open, the low table turned toward the green of the valley

Creeksong

creekside tatami room

32㎡ · tatami room · 2–3 guests

The creek runs right below the window. At night the water covers every voice — a good reason to save your words for daylight.

¥1,280/night See this room
The large window of the hillside tatami room framing a wall of old pines, morning light across the cedar floor

Pine Window

hillside tatami room

28㎡ · tatami room · 2 guests

One undivided window holds a single old pine. Look at it long enough and you go quiet along with it.

¥980/night See this room
A tatami room with a private garden, a round window facing the moss garden and a small stone lantern

Garden Lantern

garden-view tatami room

30㎡ · tatami room · 2–3 guests

A private garden six steps across. Once the lantern comes on and the moss darkens, you stop wanting to leave the room.

¥1,080/night See this room
A split-level second-floor room with a sloped cedar-beam ceiling and a hanging chair facing the mountain mist

Cloud Steps

second-floor lookout room

36㎡ · loft · 2–4 guests

The only split-level room. Morning fog moves past below the window until the bed seems to be resting on it.

¥1,480/night See this room
The stone-built open-air bath at dusk, steam rising off the water, a stone lamp glowing beside the pool Linger

Baths

A stone-built open-air bath

The pool is fed by a mild salt spring that wells up behind the house — water almost clear, with a whisper of mountain iron in it. The stonework came up from the creek below, piece by piece, when the inn was built.

By day you watch mist skim the surface; in winter, snow lands on your shoulders and is gone. Roasted tea waits by the pool, and sitting afterwards in your robe is the cheapest and the dearest thing here.

  • 01

    Straight from the spring

    Nothing added, nothing recirculated — a steady 42°C, as warm at midnight as at first light.

  • 02

    Private dusk soaks

    Two slots are held each dusk for private bathing — one family, and the whole mountainside of mist.

  • 03

    One lamp for the night

    After nine, a single stone lamp stays lit beside the pool while the stars come up over the roof.

Supper

A mountain dinner that tastes of the wood fire

Dinner is at 18:30, one set menu for the whole table. The dishes turn with the season; below is this spring's. The rice is the new harvest from the terraces behind the house.

This spring's menu

Little clay pot over charcoal Game hen and spring bamboo shoots, broth of mountain water and kelp Included
Salt-grilled creek fish Whatever the day's anglers bring up; crisp right down to the bones Included
Five tastes of the season Mountain celery, bracken, horsetail shoots — whatever the morning's picking brings Included
Kettle-cooked new rice Forty minutes over the wood fire; the crisp crust comes with salt Included
A late-night sweet Kudzu dumplings in sweet soup, brought to your door before the late hour ¥18/guest
A mountain dinner on a low table: a small clay pot, seasonal side dishes, and a bowl of new rice

Glimpses

Light beneath the eaves

House rule: no photographs of other guests — only of the light. These are the ones we kept for you.

Stone lanterns lit along the path at nightfall, moss sinking into the dark
The lanterns come on before anyone asks for them
A timber corridor with low floor lamps and a paper screen at the far end
After nine, only the floor lamps stay lit
A breakfast tray with rice, grilled fish and pickles by a bright window
Breakfast never rushes anyone — the rice does the calling
A wooden foot-bath tub under the eaves, steam rising, a folded cloth beside it
The towel by the foot bath is always warm
The stone-paved slope in front of the inn, cedars fading into mist down the mountain
Slow down before the third stone bridge

Journal

Notes from the mountain

Not announcements — just days at the inn, written down as they come and left as they are.

2026.03.28 Upkeep Seven sheets of cedar bark later, the roof is a year younger The carpenter says a wooden house doesn't mind growing old — it minds being forgotten. This spring the eaves got freshly split bark. 2026.04.11 Mountain fare Picked this morning, in tonight's side bowl The wild greens on the hill behind the house came in a week early. This morning's celery will be on your table by dinner. 2026.05.02 Night sky Two nights of clear sky, and the lamp went out early We turned the last lamp off at half past eight so the guests on the veranda could keep the stars to themselves.

Visit

The road up the mountain

The bends are many, so take them slowly. Call us when you reach the station and we'll drive down for you.

Where
17 Qingling Mountain Road, past the third stone bridge
Hours
Check-in 15:00 · Check-out 11:00 · Dinner 18:30
Rooms
Four, booked by phone only

The way up

  1. 01

    Take the train to Qingling Station

    From the city it is about an hour and twenty minutes on the Shanyang Line; the last connection leaves at 17:40.

  2. 02

    Phone for the shuttle

    There is a payphone at the station exit, or call from your mobile — it is a 25-minute ride up the mountain road.

  3. 03

    Watch for the third stone bridge

    Once across the third bridge over the creek, look for the stone lanterns and the curtain over the door.

  4. 04

    Send your bags ahead

    Larger luggage can go in advance to the forwarding office by the station — mark it with your check-in date.