The Great Roots Forestry Hot Spring & Spa Resort is located in the Dabao River basin in Sanxia District, New Taipei City. The resort covers a 20-hectare site that was formerly Taiwan's biggest tea-processing plant during the Japanese colonial period. The facilities of the nearly century-old resort include a vacation villa formerly used by the Japanese royal family, as well as gardens, fishponds and forest trails. The grounds also include the only low-elevation primitive tropical rain forest in Taiwan, with rare century-old tabular root (buttress root) trees. Veined/mountain figs (Ficus nervosa), Ficus variegata and tree ferns from the dinosaur age are among the nearly 500 species of plants in the rain forest. The forest is also home to more than 4,000 kinds of insect and over 30 kinds of bird, among them the blue—winged pitta—a globally protected species. These entire rare natural wonders wait along with the healthy and relaxing essences of the forest at the resort.
In addition to enjoying the natural scenery, visitors can take a soothing and skin-pampering soak in the carbonic hot springs at the resort.
Many species of tree in tropical rain forests have tabular roots that help keep the soil from washing away in the rain. Such roots grow at a pace of only about one centimeter a year, and are thus extremely precious. The radial tabular roots growing on steep slopes, like those at the Great Roots Forestry Spa Resort, are especially rare in Taiwan.