China's mineral springs exploited before the Song Dynasty were all distributed in the egg-shaped region formed by connecting the coastline with the line of Dan-clan in Hainan-Xining in Qinghai-Chicheng in Hebei,and relatively located in mountainous or hilly areas.The northern mineral springs were on the whole exploited earlier than the southern ones,while the order of the exploitation of regional mineral springs also reflected the order of regional land exploitation.The exploitation and utilization of mineral springs were chiefly manifested in agricultural and handicr...
