Stripped

o_pshenica 

Пусть все будут счастливы, особенно сплетники, завистники и недоброжелатели ) #india #kheerganga #himalayas #православнаяатмосфера #himachalpradesh фильтрами убила небесно-голубую водичку..

There's less and less time in my life for updating previous posts unfortunately, so let's look especially at some photo's popping up recently. 

Alphabetically? 

As there's nothing available from Afghanistan, Bhutan or China (not really, China's contributions fall under Sichuan and Tibet, following), let's start with India. 

First off, the ever beautiful Kheerganga (above), this time the women's side (bathing is strictly gender divided), somehow they need to be protected from some of the most beautiful views of any soak on this globe. 

Lower down the vales of the Himal (we're looking at the second photo), soaks are more visited and less picturesque. Always like a simple picture with a nice personal story.

  

 carapiranha 

#Gangnani desperately clings to a mountainside en route Gangotri, as if a gust of wind could carry it away. It's a tiny hamlet, famed for its #hotspring. In the #ladies bath house, the steaming #water gushes down a narrow rock face and into a cement #pool. Wisps of steam curl from its surface into the crisp air. While we stripped and entered the water as if in a spa, for others it was a religious experience. They were here to be blessed by one holy arm of the Ganga. A quick dip in the early morning, a hand placed at the feet of the deity and then the practiced task of draping their #saris.

Miracles

morganphoto 

Natural hot spring when looking for the perfect #aoolchic with @samrukmasa #picoftheday #kazakhstan #hotsprings #saltywater #miraclewater

Over to the not-often-featured-here Kazakhstan. Contrasting pictures, from the deserts to the mountains (summer to winter?). 

Nearby Kyrgyzstan though has only mountainous hot springs on offer.

Radon hot springs on the outskirts of Almaty, Gorelnik (Kazachstan) by veyizak: 

Гаааааайййс! Мы с @savydova ходили на радоновый источник по пути на турбазу Горельник! Много позитива, заряда энергии и отличного настроения, не смотря на холод в горах, вам обеспечены! Всего то нужно залезть в эту бочку/ванну/корыто с термальной, минеральной водой. 🐳🏞🏔❄️🌊

Altyn Arashan, source

Soaking in the hot springs after our four and a half hour walk

Also from Altyn Arashan, Karakol, source. 

Wow factoring

 

ckl1523

Natural hot spring water in Chame, by Marsyandi khola, Annapurna circuit, Nepal. Simply wow

#Annapurnacircuit #Nepal #Trekking #Chame #naturalhotspring #Himalayas

Halfway through the alphabet we get to Nepal; again two contrasting pictures. Note how the first picture (above, north of the Annapurna's) is a soak below the adjacent river.

 

soffydombernowsky 

Missing Nepal 💋#vacation #beauty #trip #traveling #travelingram #travelgram #vsco #love #beautiful #wanderlust #instatravel #tourist #photooftheday #happy #nature #travel #trek #amazing #annapurnacircuit #hotspring 💦💦

Wait

maison_jade 

Winter is coming here in Shanghai and I am missing this natural outdoor #hotspring at Brilliant Resort and Spa in #Chongqing... Cannot wait to try the one in Yunnan next time ♨️♨️♨️ #luxurytravel

Somewhat of anomaly between the gorgeous natural soaks, just a picture to show the new breed of Chinese soaking for the elite sites: tasteful, but little character (?).  

Then below), back to nature: they hardly get better than these few from Siberia"s Kamchatka peninsula. Natural, beautifully located and remote enough to drop the suit, if that's how you like to soak.

 

kamoutdoors 

Тимоновские Горячие источники) и пускай весь мир подождет) #kamchatka #outdoors #neverstopexploring #tour #travel #hotsprings #тимона #Камчатка #турыпокамчатке #приезжайтевгости

source

На Чукотке, между посёлками Лаврентия и Лорино, прямо у дороги с твёрдым покрытием, есть горячий источник. В образовавшемся озерке температура в среднем +45-50 ºС, ближе к самому источнику повышается до +80. Окунуться в горячую воду особенно приятно, когда вокруг мороз около -30 ºС. В советские времена здесь был маленький санаторий с гостиницей, рядом в парниках круглый год выращивали овощи. Сейчас власти Чукотского района мечтают восстановить былое.

leivamood 

Hot springs! Hot springs! 🙈🛀#picoftheday #instagood #kamchatka #kamchatkalife #hotsprings #volcano #warmingup #instadaily #mothernature #nakedplanet #adventure #travel #traveling #travelphotography #travelpics #friends #кусилося

Ritual

Hot spring near Bulunkul. From siconquesoporfavor:

The first destination a remote hill side shack that housed a warmish spring with, strangely enough, a bathtub built in for the water to run through. The water wasn’t that warm but blocked from the wind we took a dip anyway amongst the discarded razor blades the local sheppherds use to shave with and the shabby shack effect is great for a half hour soak after not having a shower last night.

To finish off this entry a couple of rambling affairs which have remoteness and naturalness as common factors as well.  
Above a hot spring near Bulunkul (Tajikistan), following a soak from near Tidrum (I think, located not too far away from Tibet's Lhasa) and rounding off with some (hot) pot affairs.

 

xuanxia_hanna

 #tibet#hotspring

   

 jaapbosman 

After a long climb spending some quality time at the hotspring with the monks. #danamonastery #nangqen #tibet #Qinghai #hotsprings #travelchina

Heads and Toes

Qinghai

The high altitude plateau of Tibet falls under a number of different administrative divisions, the major two being Tibet Autonomous Region on the one hand, the other Qinghai province.

The province of Qinghai is named after it's large saltwater lake and under the name of Amdo has been part of China since the mid-eighteenth century. However other than the area's on it's northwestern border, the main population and thus culture exists of Tibetan.

Consisting of mostly high plains and mountains Qinghai also has some hot springs, though in researching these, I believe many have remained unmentioned whereas others are known by a variety of names. This source mentions no less than 200 hot springs exist ..., so I might be missing quite a few.

Qinghai, having less restrictions on foreign travelers, one would believe that there is more information available concerning this provinces' hot springs. But that's not always the case.

Sweet!
Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, has some hot springs. This blog entry mentions a hot spring below a building which resulted in a

'fun night'.

The Qihai Holiday Dynasty has a 'bath service', which according to this reference concerns the Neiyu hot spring.


Elsewhere is the mention (link not working) of the oddly named Syrup Beach (Yaoshuitan) hot spring, located in Huangzhong county. The whole description is gibberish:

'This is known in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Beach hot syrup, after the domestic advanced scientific means to analyze the water quality, beach hot syrup was informed that the body must contain a large number of lithium, magnesium, strontium, chromium, manganese, boron, silicate and other trace without Su - , a high medicinal value, internal to the stomach have a good health, outside the bath on ringworm, scabies, urticaria, arthritis has become a good curative effect, so people it called "Shinsen syrup." '

The often used standard syrupy soak slide (source).

This translation of this web page includes:

'According to legend, Goddess Marriage "Seven Fairies heavenly days will arrest heaven after normalization, where the body vulgar body can not tolerate because of heaven, the Jade Emperor to life Taibaijinxing lower bound enchant a Shinsen sent seven the fairy often go bathing, and later seven fairies really recovered immortal body. Since then, the look was spring in here day and night flowing ...'

A real royal soak
Note should be made of the massive tragedy which struck Qinghai in the beginning of April 2010 when an earthquake had it's epicenter in the county of Yushu, which lies in the Tibetan Autonomous prefecture with the same name.
 
In light of the geological movement it's unclear whether or not the Yushu Princess Wen Cheng hot spring is still flowing; quite often hot springs can simply disappear. This hot spring is reckoned by this site to be one of the 10 beautiful places in Qinghai province.

Closer to Yushu town is Batang hot spring; Batang translates as "hot water ditch" (source). It adds:

'In the village (more a slightly denser cluster of houses amidst the grasslands) was a place advertised as a “hot springs” and could be more accurately described as simply a “spring-fed swimming pool.” But the location was lovely, and I sat out in the open and admired the view and wrote in my journal'.

Though only an hour from Yushu, the hot springs are another 2-3 hour walk up the mountain (to 3900 m), or with a motorcycle (link now defunct!):

'How do all five of us get to the hot springs with one motorcycle? Well, you ride piggyback. One guide with two passengers on back drives the motorcycle ahead. The other two hike. The motorcycle is left on the trail for the two hikers behind while the first group continues to hike. Then the following two pick up the bike and drive it ahead and then leaves the bike'.

In the end it's a very rustic place where Tibetans come and camp out in the summer. Jonas describes it as follows:

'After bypassing yet another angry dog, you start to see strange water seepages along the trail, and suddenly a hot springs pool appears below a khata-draped boulder. Then another. But this is only the start; you walk down to the riverside meadows and cross the torrent on steppingstones, then climb a low hillside. And here you find not only more hot-springs pools, but a miniature geothermal wonderland, replete with mini-geysers, bubbling springs and pools and strange mosses and technicolor soil. You strip and enter the water; perfect temperature. It starts to snow. The pool is shallow; you tuck as much of your body underwater and sigh happily; you can feel yourself relaxing. Life is good'.

Here's another link with photo, but description in Chinese ...

And another referrring to Yushu prefecture hot spring, Qinghai.

Racy

In Hainan prefecture, Guide county lies the hot spring of Zhacang. Often referred to be it's county name, Zhacang is probably the most referred to hot spring of Qinghai or hot spring visited by Tibetans. The main reason for this is what mainstream China seems to find as scandalous behaviour, soaking half naked. There are quite a few photo's on internet (for instance here). Just photo google Guide + hot spring.

More info on west-saga including the legend attributed to Guide hot spring coming into existence:

'in the beginning at the creation of the world ten suns hung in the sky, which burn hot weather everywhere, people can not live. At that time a hero called Houyi shot down nine suns with his consummate archery, leaving one sun in the sky; in this way the disaster was settled down. But the nine suns didn't take that lying down; they got into the ground scattering on the ancient China and displaying their prowess. The one in Yongzhou stayed in the underground of Wende Hot Spring; it was scorching hot, which made ground water often boiling and spurting out of the ground to form a hot spring'.

An example of the less racier, from Guide hot spring entry on sohu.com (Chinese). 

There is the proof in a scientific document, as well as an ever increasing amount of information added to the net. 

Practical info from this blog entry on Zhacang notes: 

'Zhacang spa is located 15 km from the Guide county, surface water temperatures average 40 degrees year-round, the highest water temperature of hot spring is up to 90 degrees;  Zhacang hot spring water quality is excellent, is said to have a significant effect, in particular, the men and women bathing customs handed down to us from our ancestors, let people feel very fresh and look forward to'. 

Includes a number of photo's for instance this: 

Wikitravel even has an entry: 

'Entry was free in August 2011。 The water is very very hot in the summer and locals indicate it's better in the winter. At the time of writing the village had suffered a flood and much of the associated infrastructure had been damaged however you could still have a wash in the water. Be prepared for naked old Tibetan men and women'.

Beware though, the following was in the make:

'Building a comprehensive health center in Zhacang hot spring of Guide County, which is mainly gymnastic and medicated bath, and which integrates food, accommodation, amusement into a whole'.

Luckily the link doesn't seem to be working, meaning that the plans have changed ...?


Elsewhere in the county are the hot springs of Qunaihai and Xinjie (1), though the sources mention the existence of 11 hot springs in Guide county alone ....

Zanabazar and soup

A hot spring is said to be 60 km southwest of Gonghe, also part of Hainan prefecture.

'near the town of Wenquan'

That seems to be an understatement as Wenquan translates directly from Chinese as hot springs. 
The same source (mentioned above) focuses on the life of Zanabazar, the first living Buddha of Mongolia. It describes a meeting between Zanabazar and the then Dalai Lama near Hoang-Ho Hot Springs, which the source speculates are the same hot springs. 
On internet there is even a short list of the hot springs visited by Zanabazar!

Possibly describing the same hot spring Lauren Marie has some very curious observations. Stating that at first the trip from Xining took 7 hours, then setting out the next day in searching for a soak:

'Asked him where the hot springs were. Should have been more suspect when he told us the springs were free.
We followed his directions 200 meters past the last house in town (the town is approximately 400 meters long) and came upon a giant steaming pile of trash. We though, "oh, maybe the springs are BEHIND this trash pile!" Yet, behind that is just more steaming trash. Not a Turkish bath in sight. Turns out the residents here dump their trash in the hot springs, creating a primordial soup of interesting plastic bits. The water was warm, probably 80 degrees, but a bit stagnant with algae and trash. So, we decided to follow the stream a bit further down to where there was a rock structure that we were hoping might be some sort of outdoor bath.
It was, but for sheep. Of course you need to wash your sheep every day! We came upon a corral of sheep that a few men were desperately trying to herd into a hot spring bath to be bathed - I guess. We joined in the pushing and stick beating until all the sheep were through. Then we decided to wander down river a bit.
We hiked for a ways up into snowy mountains, and then Anna and I turned back while the boys continued their hike. On the way back we figured we'd check out the source of the hot spring and came upon a pool where a couple of little boys were having a bath. Their older brothers were sitting on cinderblocks with their feet dangling in. Anna and I followed suit and pulled up some cinderblocks and sat for a while. The water felt really nice at the time, although my feet haven't really warmed up since that hike'.

Possibly located in Hainan prefecture is the hot spring of Chiga. Legerton and Rawson (2) describe in no less than 15 pages a visit to these hot springs and the soaking culture.

'Chiga hot springs were nothing more than sweltering geothermal mineral water collected into a series of six natural pools at the opening of a steep clay canyon'.

The complete story (as well as other reports in the book) are fascinating. Locals, be they Tibetan, Chinese or Uighur bathe for months on end to relieve ailments.

From the Tibet Qinghai photo sharing forum. Could it be Chiga (might be Zhacang ..)? By Melvynyeo:

'This is the local hot spring. Man and woman naked together in the same spring. They don't seem to mind us taking photos'.

The Laughing Soak?

Madoi (Maduo) county, Golog prefecture possess just the one hot spring, which unfortunately goes unnamed. This site (now broken link?) also provides a photo overview of the county with a surprising photo of the hot spring.

Then in Huangnan prefecture, Tongren (or Repkong/Rebkong) is described as a 'gem':

'We enter a sacred cave, candlelit and filled with medicinal water. It is packed with Tibetan women from a nearby campground, having an evening soak. The heat, moisture and company in the cave are incredibly soothing.
To our delight, the women serenade us with Tibetan folk songs. Peels of laughter erupt when one particularly bold woman stood up and—bare-chested—mimicked a dance to accompany the popular song, "Our Merit Increases" (Bsod nams yar 'gro lags). On departing, we are treated to a parody of the traditional departing gesture: presenting a white silk scarf, or khata'.

The copyrighted photo by Julia Calfee:

'Tibetan women bathing in hot spring grotto for medicinal purposes outside Tongren'

Elsewhere there is another photoblog (to approach chinese minority: men and women on together bathe) of the same hot spring (I think) with an exceedingly difficult to follow narrative (but decidedly positive). Can you make head or toes of the following?

'In these hot springs,one of them can not only cure many diseases, but also men and women with hot spring bath. Laughter is just that - a naked young woman is the Tibetan laughed at me and doing up her hair. She sat rock on the side, legs extended in the hot wind around the water vapor, wry-necked in doing her long hair. There are also two next to her and her age similar to the Tibetan woman, while Bath side laugh at me. the scene reminds me of a piece of classical Western art. Tug oil paintings so remarkable that many people praised, keep it in time, and I now it is the reality.The hotspring gives auspicious happiness, pure and kind-hearted people of the Spa, not only washed the dirt and disease. it is also a particular tibetan custom'.

Then in Tongren county there is the hot spring of Qukuhu:

'There are peculiar landforms here. It is Qukuhu Medical Hot Spring at the north of the park with the temperature between 45-65ºC. The spring water can cure skin disease and rheumatic arthritis. There is another medical spring that is compound natural mineral water and called holy water by people'.

Freezing winter

In Haixi prefecture is the hot spring of Nachitai (Nacitai) otherwise known as Kunlun. Listed as an attraction of Golmud there is significant info available on this hot spring. This description is more concise:

'We will see a holy spring called Kunlun Holy Spring that just stand by the way. The spring gushes all the year even in the freezing winter. It is said to have a marvelous curative effect on people'.

Notes:
(1) Mianping, Z. (1997) An Introduction to Saline Lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
(2) Legerton, C and J. Rawson (2009) Prayers on the plateau. From: Invisible China: A journey through ethnic borderlands. pp. 161-176. Chicago Press Review, Chicago, United States of America.

Delineation?

Fringe culture

While highlighting the hotter soaks of the Himalaya one will always come up to the fringe of what should or shouldn't be included. On the one hand I am very much inclusive, on the other hand it's by no means my intention to provide background to all of Asia's hot springs. Well that's what I thought back in 2011 ...

Gansu province, north west of the Tibetan plateau forms one such fringe. It being on the cross roads to the steppes to the north, the Gobi to the west and China proper to the east. With this information it's quite difficult to discern what would belong to a hot soak of the Himal and what not.

Anyway an ultimate soak is a soak in natural scenery irrespective of geography, administrative division and social culture: a good soak may well be in the middle of a desert or a city for instance.

Gansu
Gansu province is probably a less visited province and as such less well-known. However it contains a highly diverse geography as well as rich culture.

Not really famous for it's hot springs, there are though quite a few, some still untouched by 'progress'.

That said the Tianyuan Hot Spring Hotel in the province's capital of Lanzhou is not one of them. Looking like anything but a natural soak, the reviews on tripadvisor are not too bad. However the existence of a hot spring does not seem to be the reason why reviewers add their opinion of this hotel.

Tianshui environs
Another city, Tianshui, is noted for the many hot springs around the city (source), while Chinatravel describes the area as having

'abundant geothermic hot springs'.!

Among the hot springs near Tianshui are Mapao (just the single source), Maiji, Qingshui (references for both, see Chinatravel, above), Jieting, Baisha (source) and Wushan. As ever it could just be a single hot spring with many different names.

Jieting (or Maijishan) hot spring are referred to as having 19 kinds of chemical trace elements and the

'first choice for treatment, leisure and holiday'.

There are some photo's of a not so appealing Wushan hot spring. More info can be found here:

'Wushan Hot Spring lies on the Wenqian village thirty kilometers southeast to the urban area of Tianshui. It is referred to as a mineral spring. The spring enjoys an outsized total area with eleven spring mouths and 700 plenty of water volume every day. The spring is of recent water and therefore the water temperature is from 38℃ to 40℃'.

Warm spring
North of Tianshui is the prefecture of Pingliang. Jianchuan is the place to take the waters here. However it may be disputed whether or not the soaks here are hot. The site once used to reveal that the spring at the source of the Liuhu is only 17 degrees, which in winter can be regarded as tepid, otherwise that's nice and cool. The info continues and refers to Zuo Zongtang adding an inscription near the springs entitled 'Nuanquan', warm spring. Chinatravel adds:

'The surroundings is gracious, beautiful, convenient, and informative. The hot spring is explored in 1971, with a constant temperature 38.2℃ all around the year. It has 13 active microelements. Having bath in hot spring can keep the human body clean and moist, and has health-care functions including accelerate blood circulation, practice the cardiac muscle, protect the heart, help digestion, get rid of fatigue, heal cardiac vein and skin diseases'.

Unfortunately the web search also revealed mentions of unveiled greed:

'There are about 1,190 million cubic meters of underground water and a hot spring 10 km to the west whose temperature is between 30 to 36 degrees centigrade; both of them are just waiting for exploitation'.

To freak or not
In Gannan autonomous prefecture, a tremendously mountainous area wedged into Qinghai province one can find the hot spring of Zhajiang (or Jiang Zha) located in Luqu county. Also referred to by the name of the nearby Buddhist monastery of Langmu.

Langmu hot springs, blogged by Nswink13:

'There were two hot springs. We weren't going to get in because we didn't have our bathing suites, but we allowed our bras and underwear to suffice. This was the only photo we took since most of the women in the water were totally naked.

Sitting in these hot springs are supposed to be really good for your skin. It was neat to sit right by the mountain where the water flowed out from. It was so hot I was sweating. It felt like a scorching bathtub. We had been in a hot spring in Yanshou earlier on in the vacation; however, after experiencing this one, I am pretty sure that one was fake. They were more like hot tubs'.

The poorly reachable hot springs (this Chinese website mentions more than 40) has saved it from both heavy development as well as social mainstreaming. Hattie25 describes a visit to the place and was 'surprised':

'As we stepped into the females’, the wet warm airflow embraced us immediately. Lots of naked local Tibetan females with their children were sitting down the bottom of square pool silently, water could only immerge an adult’s instep, My godness! This is the famous hot spring of local’s legend? Really freaks me out!'.

That's what traveling is all about, finding and experiencing new things (well what's new about this?) without being biased.

'Jiang Zha hot spring, you dare to in?'

(source, non working)

Anyway is you can observe the hot springs are rustic and cut into a cliff face. And one not need to be schocked as there are also other soaking places. Gotomessland.com mentions (with photographic evidence) that the indoor pools are not quite clean.

Restore Function
Nearby, in Dingxi prefecture Tongwei hot spring is known as Gansu's province's sacred spring. Elsewhere it was (link has gone) mentioned that:

'The hot spring water is natural mineral water with abundant fluorine, silicon and radon. The spring water can promote one's appetite and supply the necessary microelements in the human body.
It can also help cure one's chronic gastritis and enteritis, improve the metabolic process in human body and prevent premature senility. Therefore, the spring water is also called "youth mineral water"'.

Not bad? Source translated:

'Long went to the location on the Shinsen --- Tongwei, about 2.5 hours away, all the way to enjoy the beautiful rural scenery, the fresh feeling of nature, while the hot springs to relax tired mind and body. Shinsen is comfortable in the bath to enjoy, you can make the skin shiny and smooth, fit and healthy. When the temperature is 34-36 ℃, the nervous system has a significant sedative effect,37-39 ℃, the increase in gastric secretion, gastric motility to enhance, accelerate blood circulation. 42-44 ℃ when the strong sweating, excretion of metabolites, co-ordinating body to restore function, absorption of various trace elements beneficial to humans'.

Updated May 2014

Heads and Toes

Qinghai

The high altitude plateau of Tibet falls under a number of different administrative divisions, the major two being Tibet Autonomous Region on the one hand, the other Qinghai province.

The province of Qinghai is named after it's large saltwater lake and under the name of Amdo has been part of China since the mid-eighteenth century. However other than the area's on it's northwestern border, the main population and thus culture exists of Tibetan.

Consisting of mostly high plains and mountains Qinghai also has some hot springs, though in researching these, I believe many have remained unmentioned whereas others are known by a variety of names. This source mentions no less than 200 hot springs exist ..., so I might be missing quite a few.

Qinghai, having less restrictions on foreign travelers, one would believe that there is more information available concerning this provinces' hot springs. But that's not always the case.

Sweet!
Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, has some hot springs. This blog entry mentions a hot spring below a building which resulted in a

'fun night'.

The Qihai Holiday Dynasty has a 'bath service', which according to this reference concerns the Neiyu hot spring.


Elsewhere is the mention (link not working) of the oddly named Syrup Beach (Yaoshuitan) hot spring, located in Huangzhong county. The whole description is gibberish:

'This is known in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Beach hot syrup, after the domestic advanced scientific means to analyze the water quality, beach hot syrup was informed that the body must contain a large number of lithium, magnesium, strontium, chromium, manganese, boron, silicate and other trace without Su - , a high medicinal value, internal to the stomach have a good health, outside the bath on ringworm, scabies, urticaria, arthritis has become a good curative effect, so people it called "Shinsen syrup." '

The often used standard syrupy soak slide (source).

This translation of this web page includes:

'According to legend, Goddess Marriage "Seven Fairies heavenly days will arrest heaven after normalization, where the body vulgar body can not tolerate because of heaven, the Jade Emperor to life Taibaijinxing lower bound enchant a Shinsen sent seven the fairy often go bathing, and later seven fairies really recovered immortal body. Since then, the look was spring in here day and night flowing ...'

A real royal soak
Note should be made of the massive tragedy which struck Qinghai in the beginning of April 2010 when an earthquake had it's epicenter in the county of Yushu, which lies in the Tibetan Autonomous prefecture with the same name.
 
In light of the geological movement it's unclear whether or not the Yushu Princess Wen Cheng hot spring is still flowing; quite often hot springs can simply disappear. This hot spring is reckoned by this site to be one of the 10 beautiful places in Qinghai province.

Closer to Yushu town is Batang hot spring; Batang translates as "hot water ditch" (source). It adds:

'In the village (more a slightly denser cluster of houses amidst the grasslands) was a place advertised as a “hot springs” and could be more accurately described as simply a “spring-fed swimming pool.” But the location was lovely, and I sat out in the open and admired the view and wrote in my journal'.

Though only an hour from Yushu, the hot springs are another 2-3 hour walk up the mountain (to 3900 m), or with a motorcycle (link now defunct!):

'How do all five of us get to the hot springs with one motorcycle? Well, you ride piggyback. One guide with two passengers on back drives the motorcycle ahead. The other two hike. The motorcycle is left on the trail for the two hikers behind while the first group continues to hike. Then the following two pick up the bike and drive it ahead and then leaves the bike'.

In the end it's a very rustic place where Tibetans come and camp out in the summer. Jonas describes it as follows:

'After bypassing yet another angry dog, you start to see strange water seepages along the trail, and suddenly a hot springs pool appears below a khata-draped boulder. Then another. But this is only the start; you walk down to the riverside meadows and cross the torrent on steppingstones, then climb a low hillside. And here you find not only more hot-springs pools, but a miniature geothermal wonderland, replete with mini-geysers, bubbling springs and pools and strange mosses and technicolor soil. You strip and enter the water; perfect temperature. It starts to snow. The pool is shallow; you tuck as much of your body underwater and sigh happily; you can feel yourself relaxing. Life is good'.

Here's another link with photo, but description in Chinese ...

And another referrring to Yushu prefecture hot spring, Qinghai.

Racy

In Hainan prefecture, Guide county lies the hot spring of Zhacang. Often referred to be it's county name, Zhacang is probably the most referred to hot spring of Qinghai or hot spring visited by Tibetans. The main reason for this is what mainstream China seems to find as scandalous behavior, soaking half naked. There are quite a few photo's on internet. Just photo google Guide + hot spring.

An example of the less racier, from Guide hot spring entry on daditrip.com (Chinese). 
(tot hier)
more photos

Besides the proof in a scientific document, there is Life photo of the natural springs. Beware though, the following is in the make:

'Building a comprehensive health center in Zhacang hot spring of Guide County, which is mainly gymnastic and medicated bath, and which integrates food, accommodation, amusement into a whole'.

A blog entry on Zhacang notes: 

'Zhacang spa is located 15 km from the Guide county, surface water temperatures average 40 degrees year-round, the highest water temperature of hot spring is up to 90 degrees;  Zhacang hot spring water quality is excellent, is said to have a significant effect, in particular, the men and women bathing customs handed down to us from our ancestors, let people feel very fresh and look forward to'. 

Includes a number of photo's for instance this: 

Zanabazar
Elsewhere in the county are the hot springs of Qunaihai and Xinjie (1), though the sources mention the existence of 11 hot springs in this county alone ....

A hot spring is said to be 60 km southwest of Gongh, Hainan prefecture.

'near the town of Wenquan'

wenquan soup

which seems to be an understatement as Wenquan translates as hot springs. The same source which focuses on the life of Zanabazar, the first living Buddha of Mongolia describes a meeting between Zanabazar and the then Dalai Lama near Hoang-Ho Hot Springs, which the source speculates are the same hot springs.

Possibly located in Hainan prefecture is the hot spring of Chiga. Legerton and Rawson (2) describe in no less than 15 pages a visit to these hot springs and the soaking culture.

'Chiga hot springs were nothing more than sweltering geothermal mineral water collected into a series of six natural pools at the opening of a steep clay canyon'.

The complete story (as well as other reports in the book) are fascinating. Locals, be they Tibetan, Chinese or Uighur bathe for months on end to relieve ailments.

From the Tibet Qinghai photo sharing forum.Could it be Chiga? By Melvynyeo:

'This is the local hot spring. Man and woman naked together in the same spring. They don't seem to mind us taking photos'.

The Laughing Soak?

Maduo county, Golog prefecture possess 1 hot spring, which unfortunately goes unnamed. This site also provides a photo overview of the county with a surprising photo of the hot spring.

Then in Huangnan prefecture, Tongren is described as a 'gem' :

'We enter a sacred cave, candlelit and filled with medicinal water. It is packed with Tibetan women from a nearby campground, having an evening soak. The heat, moisture and company in the cave are incredibly soothing.
To our delight, the women serenade us with Tibetan folk songs. Peels of laughter erupt when one particularly bold woman stood up and—bare-chested—mimicked a dance to accompany the popular song, "Our Merit Increases" (Bsod nams yar 'gro lags). On departing, we are treated to a parody of the traditional departing gesture: presenting a white silk scarf, or khata'.

The copyrighted photo by Julia Calfee:

'Tibetan women bathing in hot spring grotto for medicinal purposes outside Tongren'

Elsewhere there is another photoblog (to approach chinese minority: men and women on together bathe) of the same hot spring (I think) with an exceedingly difficult to follow narrative (but decidedly positive). Can you make head or toes of the following?

'In these hot springs,one of them can not only cure many diseases, but also men and women with hot spring bath. Laughter is just that - a naked young woman is the Tibetan laughed at me and doing up her hair. She sat rock on the side, legs extended in the hot wind around the water vapor, wry-necked in doing her long hair. There are also two next to her and her age similar to the Tibetan woman, while Bath side laugh at me. the scene reminds me of a piece of classical Western art. Tug oil paintings so remarkable that many people praised, keep it in time, and I now it is the reality.The hotspring gives auspicious happiness, pure and kind-hearted people of the Spa, not only washed the dirt and disease. it is also a particular tibetan custom'.

Then in Tongren county there is the hot spring of Qukuhu:

'There are peculiar landforms here. It is Qukuhu Medical Hot Spring at the north of the park with the temperature between 45-65ºC. The spring water can cure skin disease and rheumatic arthritis. There is another medical spring that is compound natural mineral water and called holy water by people'.

Freezing winter

In Haixi prefecture is the hot spring of Nachitai otherwise known as Kunlun. Listed as an attraction of Golmud there is significant info available on this hot spring. This description is more concise:

'We will see a holy spring called Kunlun Holy Spring that just stand by the way. The spring gushes all the year even in the freezing winter. It is said to have a marvelous curative effect on people'.

Notes:
(1) Mianping, Z. (1997) An Introduction to Saline Lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.(2) Legerton, C and J. Rawson (2009) Prayers on the plateau. From: Invisible China: A journey through ethnic borderlands. pp. 161-176. Chicago Press Review, Chicago, United States of America.