Guihua Temple – Songzanlin Monastery

In the year 1993, James Hilton described an eternally peaceful and quiet place among mountains in the East – “Shangri-La” in one of his novels for the first time. In the novel “Lost Horizon”, an English diplomat Conway and his brother Gorge scattered the English citizens and helped them leave the dangerous region. On their way home, their plane was hijacked and fell down into the mountain in the Tibetan region. Some lucky survivors were taken to Shangri-la where Conway found lots of fantastic things in such a state founded nearly 200 years ago, in which the local people lived up to more than one hundred years old and lived peacefully and harmoniously with the other people, animals and everything here. The place was called “Shangri-La” by the local folks.

James Hilton located “Shangri-La” in a mysterious valley which was surrounded by snowcapped mountains; near where there were snow-clad peaks, blue lakes, broad grassy marshlands, and lamaseries, Buddhist nunneries, mosques, Catholic Church; the human beings and the nature were in perfect harmony, several religions and varies of nationalities exited at the same time; Baishui terrace, the temples looked splendid in green and golden; though people contacted the outer world by caravan for a long time, many foreign experts and scholars had come here to investigate and remained much relics.

Obviously, that is not only a beautiful scenery, but also a kind of artistic conception. With the novel and the film coming out, Shangri-La became very famous in western countries. Later, a Chinese named Guo Huonian used the name of this place and set up “Shangri-La” Hotel Group which has become one of the most successful hotel group in the world.

At the same time, people didn’t give up looking for the legendary Shangri-La. Up to the end of this century, they finally have found–After inspecting and proving on many aspects, people found that Diqing Prefecture, the only Tibetan region in Yunnan, China, has striking similarity with what’s described in the tale regarding either on natural scenery or people’s way of living. Therefore, the name of “Diqing-Shangri-La” spreads worldwide.