Various generating functions of simple Hurwitz numbers of the projective line are known to satisfy many properties. They include a heat equation, the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion, an infinite-order differential equation called a quantum curve equation, and a Schroedinger like partial differential equation. In this paper we generalize these properties to simple Hurwitz numbers with an arbitrary base curve.

The Eynard-Orantin recursion formula provides an effective tool for certain enumeration problems in geometry. The formula requires a spectral curve and the recursion kernel. We present a uniform construction of the spectral curve and the recursion kernel from the unstable geometries of the original counting problem. We examine this construction using four concrete examples: Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants (or higher-genus analogue of the Catalan numbers), the intersection numbers of tautological cotangent classes on the moduli stack of stable pointed curves, single Hurwitz numbers, and the stationary Gromov-Witten invariants of the complex projective line.