Concentrations

Baoshan lies in the south-east of Yunnan. A majority of Yunnan's hot springs are to found in this city prefecture.

Hot Spring Culture

Most of these hot springs are to be found in the volcanic region of Tengchong county.

'Over 80 vapor springs and hot springs are scattered around the volcanoes, making this the second largest vapor field in China. The famous Yihong Hot Lake is one of the biggest hot spring lakes in China, covering a total area of 10 square kilometers. The most magnificent Dagunguo (boiling pan) Hot Spring, 6.12 meters in diameter and 1.5 meters deep, has a water temperature of 96.6 degrees centigrade, and resembles a pan of boiling water, sending steam high into the sky. The Hamazui Fountain, with a water temperature of 95.5 degrees centigrade, looks like two frogs spraying out hot spring water. Pearl Spring is a pool of water with hundreds of spray holes in the bottom sending out pearl-like strings of hot bubbling water.
Other spectacular sights include Huaitaijing, Gumingquan, Xiaogunguo and Yanjingquan springs and waterfalls. Hot springs in the adjacent Longling County are also popular with visitors because of their medicinal effects on the human body'. (Source).

Others mention that there are 24 springs of over 45℃.

Tengchong however is swiftly becoming part of China tourism trail thanks in part to the new airport. To confirm this, there is even a celebration called the Volcano Hot Spring Cultural Tourism Festival of Tengchong. However it seems to be another spectacular show with little or nothing to do with hot springs nor with soaking culture.

And though viewing the waters from a distance seems to be the number 1 activity, soaking in Tengchong is mentioned to be reasonably priced. See this photo of hot spring bathing in Tengchong.

With over 80 hot springs, naming the hot springs can be fun. Brian Powers has photographic documentation on the Cherry Blossoms hot spring. Canyonlovers adds

'This is one of the best trips from TengChong for the nature lover and hiker has rustic accommodations and good food available. This canyon is located in the Gaolingshan Mountain nature reserve "and has many pink wild cherry blossoms everywhere in the valley…falls gushing from the steeps of the mountainside swiftly drop down like flying dragons …the drips splash in all directions like pearls…". What beautiful local language. The reader can go and judge for themselves if it is all true. Cherry Blossom Valley is about 20km east of TengChong 20km along a cobble stone road'.

Tengchong town possesses a number of hot spring hotels, among them Beauty Pool Hot Spring Hotel, Tengchong (tripadvisor) as well as the Atami Wellness House.

Last year it was announced that Banyan Tree Holdings would help Tengchong move upmarket and it is foreseen that it will open three luxury hotels as well as a spa center (source). Date of opening 2014 according to company website.

Bathing River
Zaotang He (Zao Tang or Bath river) is a lesser known hot spring but therefore not to be overlooked. Located north-west of Baoshan (county?), it is to be found in Baihualing Nature Reserve in the Gaoligong mountains. Chen Liang, along time fan writes in the China Daily:

'When I first visited Zaotang He in the summer of 1996, it involved trekking a steep trail for three hours down into the valley before I could enjoy my dip - and a near four-hour climb back up the mountain afterward.

It's better now. The trail has been widened and paved with stone, while the hot spring itself is a chain of three circular pools built on the riverbed. Hot spring water bubbles out of the riverbed while cold water is channeled in to adjust the temperature for bathing'.

Another website explained that as many people bath in this stream, it was thus named Zaotang.

A beauty of a picture, surely it should rate as one of China's most beautiful and undisturbed hot springs

Jewel in the crown
Bang Na Zhang (or Banglazhang) is located 10 km from the Longling county headquarters. What makes it stand out is that this hot spring has as many as 100 separate springs with some great variation, often with varying colours and temperatures. Take for instance Yinyuanquan:

'The two springs of Yinyangquan, only 30 cm away from each other, exhibit sharp difference of water temperature, with one being 90°C and the other one 10°C'.

This link goes to a Chinese language website announcing the opening of new (drab looking) public pools of Banglazhang (free for county registered inhabitants), where locals can possibly maintain their age old habit of bathing naked (source). Commercially there is a better looking place (see below).

Longling Banglazhang Spa, the "most shining crown jewel" (source).

Shidian county boasts Shipiao (stone dipper) hot spring (source (Chinese)). It is a "hot spring hotel", included on tripadvisor. A description:

'Shipiao Hotspring is on the far opposite of Songshan, the main battlefield in West Yunnan during the War against Japanese invaders (World War Two). It's situated in sub-tropical ravine and is endowed with picturesque landscapes, verdant vegetation and pleasing environment. Being carbonated, Shipiao hot spring exhibits satisfactory efficacy for health care and effective therapy for some diseases, for which tens of thousands of visitors travel here for vacation each year'.

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.