Having blogged on most of the Himal hot soaks one can take a look at the wider area beyond the Himal area. As stated before deeper into China there are little hot springs still in natural state. Nor are the sites non-commercial. North of the Himal lies another huge administrative area, the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uyghur.
'the utilization of geothermal resources in Xinjiang remains in a pretty low level at this moment. Only a little of them has been developed for medical treating and bathing use'.
'there is no any active volcano in Xinjiang'.
A nice problem to solve.
'standard international indoor swimming pool'.
And is sometimes known as Water mill Gully.
Another major attraction of Ürümqi is the Swan Lake. Near the Swan Lake of Bayinburuke (Mongolia for rich springs) is the hot spring of Aerxia (Arxian). It is reputed to have healing powers. Angela Yeo has just the one photo of presumably the hot spring of Swan Lake, as well as others from the same area.
wiwei has been to Arxian.
'There are dozens of hot springs, which are dominated by three hot springs at the foot of Laojun Temple, namely No.1 Spring, No.2 Spring and No.3 Spring, also one “Eyes Spring” with flux of 0.5 liter per second, which can cure eye disease'.
Other than that there are two hot springs in Wusu (Wuzu). A link provides photo's entitled Wusu hot spring as well as extensive other info on Wusu.
'Located in Shawan county cures sikness slowerilv among the local people'.
Fuhai county has a hot spring 'gully' named Alashan; more cryptical info can be found here.
'... despite its modest exterior, the main building housed a large clean pool and several bath tubs that were continously fed by hot water from the spring nearby'.
The Bortala Mongolian autonomous prefecture contains the hot spring of Bozhou Bogeda in Wenquan county. Tot hier This is a national class 2a scenic area. Others describe the hot spring as magical.
Southern Xinjiang consists mostly of Bayingolin autonomous prefecture. Here plans are of exploiting / upgrading the local hot spring of Usu. Or were (link disappeared Nov. 2011).
Unfortunately mostly the hot soaks of Xinjiang remain quite unknown. No doubt there are many more with little or no info on the web. That said many on the web fail to go beyond some small scale descriptions with little photographic and / or actual experience.
Song Huang (2010) has a recent publication which briefly touches on hot springs in Xinjiang. He lists a number of hot springs requiring protection. Not included above are Tianshan Shenmu (?), Fish-eye, Beullaclacris, Wushi, Jinhegou, Yining Huolongdong and Huocheng Huolongdong.
Finally a word on Wucaiwan hot spring.
Wucaiwan is located in Jimsar county, Changji Hui autonomous prefecture. It's main claim to fame is the naming of a geological formation. A MSc thesis by Weijun Li (2010) draws comparisons between a Swedish bathing town and possible development of Wucaiwan. An interesting read.
The picture above is part of a $400 million investment drive, only 10 years ago. Apparently it still attracts only 100 soakers a day which means someone is losing money or the amounts thrown at the spa facilities were slightly overstated. Included in the report are equally bleak pictures with virtually no-one existent.
Overall the report lacks depth (easy MSc?) and recommends linking the resort more to the overall tourist infrastructure.
Song Huang (2010) Geological heritages in Xinjiang,China: Its featues and protection. Journal of Geographical Sciences, vol.20, no. 3, 357 - 374. Journal of Geographical Sciences, Springer.
Weijun Li (2010) The planning of hot spring travel region. MSc thesis, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden.
Zhang Wei Zhou (2002) The basic characteristics of geothermal resources in Xinjiang, China. Geological Survey Institute of Xinjiang.