Chinanews, Zhengzhou, Nov. 20 – In the western part of Henan, in Lushi County, there is a village called Tanghe. Villagers there, men or women, like to take baths stark naked in the village's spring day or night, not fearing that they might be spotted by people walking on a street not far from the river, Dong Fang Jin Bao reported.To local villagers, the spring is a gift from god which can help them to cure diseases. This was especially the case at a time before and after the 1950s.Li Xiangyu, 72, is a local villager. According to his recollection, at that time local villagers could rarely get some medical treatment. Whenever one got a disease, such as a skin disease or arthritis one would bathe in the spring. Many of the people who bathed in the river had skin ulcer. Even people in neighboring villages would travel far to come to bathe in Tanghe.“The river contains a lot of sulphur that can cure many diseases. And people won't get infected by bathing in the river,” Li said.While people from other parts of the region come to bathe in the spring mainly for curing diseases, local villagers regard bathing as a kind of pleasure. After a day's hard work, taking a bath in the spring will make one feel relaxed. The bath will also make the skin become smoother. So, everybody in the village, men or women, like to bathe with nothing on in the spring whenever they have the time and they won’t feel embarrassed if they are spotted naked by other people.No one could remember when the custom began. Li Xiangyu could only remember that when he was young, his father told him that their forefathers had done so many years ago and when he (his father) was young, he often bathed in the spring, too.What Li had said was confirmed in the Lushi County Annals, a book that was written during the ninth reigning year of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In this book, it is said that the spring in Tanghe Village could be used to take baths in winter.