Yambajan

Tibet boasts the most hot springs in China. Yambajan, which covers an area of 7,000 square meters, features all kinds of hot springs including highest-temperature hot springs, boiling springs and geysers as well as common hot springs.

The hot spring in Yambajan, which contains high content of sulfureted hydrogen, is therapeutic to many chronic diseases. The bathing place is an open-air swimming pool. The hot spring, the temperature of which is too high, needs to be cooled in two open-air cisterns before it is available for bathing. With the snow-capped mountains in the distance, it is really an enjoyment to have a hot-spring bath in the swimming pool. Especially in winter, it is very pleasant and romantic to enjoy the heavy snowfall by bathing in the hot spring.

The early morning in Yambajan is the most beautiful. In the cold morning, the hydrothermal fields are always suffused with white haze and the lake surface is always covered with great steam agglomerations, which is really fascinating and makes Yambajan a wonderland. If you are lucky enough, you may have a chance to witness the fantastic and splendid scene: the boiling water is erupting to the sky from the mouth of hot spring.

There are many hydrothermal wells distributed in the Yambajan hydrothermal area for generating electricity. And the Yambajan Hydrothermal Power Plant, jointly developed and constructed by China and the United Nations and completed in 1977, is currently the biggest hydrothermal power plant in China. The hydrothermal energy in the hydrothermal wells, transported by the pipeline, propels the turbines in the hydrothermal power plant to generate cheap and environmental electricity for Lhasa and the areas nearby.

On the plateau, you need consume a large amount of oxygen. So when bathing in the hot spring, don't do the exercise that requires too much energy, otherwise you may feel physically weak after finishing your bath. In addition, if you visit Yambajan on the way to Namtso, you'd better have the hot-spring bathing on the way back from Namtso, otherwise, you may miss the beautiful dusk scenery of Lake Namtso, and what's worse, your altitude sickness may be aggravated as a result of physical consumption in the hot-spring bathing.