Shangri-La (; ) is a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

in northwestern

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

province, China, named after the mythical land depicted in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon''. It is the capital and largest city of

Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northwestern Yunnan province, China. Covering an area of , it is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the northwest, Sichuan province to the northeast, and other parts of ...

. It is bordered by the city of

Lijiang Lijiang ( zh, s= ), formerly romanized as Likiang, is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China. It has an area of and had a population of 1,253,878 at the 2020 census whom 288,787 lived in the built-up area (metro) ...

to the south and

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province to the northwest, north, and east.

Geography

Shangri-La City is located in the east of Diqing Prefecture, in northwestern Yunnan. It borders Daocheng County and Muli County,

to the east, Yulong County of

and Weixi County to the south, Deqin County to the west, and Derong County and Xiangcheng County of Sichuan to the north and northwest.

Name

The city was originally a county named Zhongdian (); the Tibetan population referred to the area by its traditional name Gyalthang (), meaning "royal plains". On 17 December 2001, the Chinese government renamed the county "Shangri-La", after the fictional land of

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains, Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by the British author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently ...

in the 1933 James Hilton novel '' Lost Horizon''. This renaming, along with the county's upgrade to a

on 16 December 2014, was part of an effort by the Chinese government to promote tourism in the area. The Chinese name of the county seat, Jiantang (), reflects a Mandarin transliteration of Gyalthang.

History

In the early morning of 11 January 2014, a fire broke out in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood. About 242 homes and shops were destroyed and 2,600 residents were displaced. About half of the old town was destroyed by the fire. Afterwards, residents were allowed back to their homes and shops. By the end of 2014 rebuilding had started and tourism started to return. Tourism was generally not affected by the fire, since the main sights in the old town, such as the prayer wheel and temples, were not damaged. Many of the other main sights are located outside of the old town.

Demographics and languages

The southern half of the city is inhabited by the

Naxi people The Nakhi, Nashi, or Naxi (; Naxi language, Naxi: ) are a people inhabiting the Hengduan Mountains abutting the Eastern Himalayas in the northwestern part of Yunnan Provinces of China, Province, as well as the southwestern part of Sichuan Prov ...

, who speak the

Naxi language Naxi (), also known as ''Nakhi'', ''Nasi'', ''Lomi'', ''Moso'', or ''Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by approximately 310,000 Nakhi people, most of whom live in or around Yulong Naxi Autonomous County in the pr ...

, a Lolo-Burmese language separate from the

Tibetic languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the ...

. The northern half is inhabited by the Khampas, who speak the southern variety of

Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic languages, Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In ...

Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in much of Southwestern China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the nor ...

is spoken by the

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

throughout the city. The ambiance of the town is distinctly Tibetan with prayer flags fluttering, mountains known by holy names, lamaseries and rocks inscribed in

Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Ol ...

with

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

sutras.

Administrative divisions

Shangri-La city has 4 towns, 6 townships and 1 ethnic township.

Climate

Shangri-La has either a dry-winter, warm-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

: Dwb) using the 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm, or a dry-winter

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

(

: Cwb) using the isotherm, both of which are unusually cool by Yunnan standards due to the high elevation, which ranges between . Winters are chilly but sunny, with a 24 hour January average temperature of -2.0 °C (28.4 °F), while summers are cool, with a 24 July-hour average temperature of , and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. The annual mean is . Except during the summer, nights are usually sharply cooler than the days. Despite the dryness of the winter, the small amount of precipitation is generally sufficient to cause major transportation dislocations and isolate the area between November and March.

National park

* Pudacuo National Park, the first national park in China to meet

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

standards, is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.

Transport

* Shangri-La railway station on Lijiang–Shangri-La railway opened on 26 November 2023. It takes 1h 20min to reach

by train, and about 5h to the provincial capital

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

. * The city's airport is Diqing Shangri-La Airport. Covering an area of 225 hectares, it is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of

. There are flights to

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

Lhasa Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China. Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

and

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. * Taking a long-distance bus is also a major means to get to Shangri-La. It takes about four hours to get to Shangri-La from Lijiang by bus. Tourists who rent a car for the trip can also visit the

Tiger Leaping Gorge Tiger Leaping Gorge () is a scenic canyon on the Jinsha River, a primary tributary of the upper Yangtze River. It is located north of Lijiang City, Yunnan in southwestern China. It is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas Wo ...

(Hutiaoxia, 虎跳峡) and the First Bend of Yangtze River on the way.Transportation" ChinaTour.net
Accessed 9 May 2014 * Many travelers use the county town as a gateway into

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

, either travelling many days overland by jeep to

, or by flying from the city's airport. However, the town itself is a tourist destination, primarily due to the nearby Gandan Sumtseling Monastery, ''Ganden Sumtsen Ling'', ''Sōngzànlín Sì''), Pudacuo National Park, and

. * China National Highway 214

References

External links

Shangri-La City Official Website
{{Authority control County-level divisions of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Tourism in Yunnan Cities in Yunnan