Shangrila Hotels

Shangrila formerly Zhongdian is in Yunnan province. The town is split between Tibetan and Han Chinese residents, as well as a fair smattering of Naxi, Bai, Yi and Lisu, with the surrounding countryside entirely Tibetan. While the crass name change in 2001 was a sign of the desire for increasing mass tourism a la Lijiang, the town's got nowhere near Lijiang's crowds, and it's still possible to experience the area's Tibetan heritage and see gorgeous countryside in near isolation. Zhongdian was renamed Shangrila for marketing reasons. Signs in bus stations still use "Zhongdian". There is also a third name in Tibetan, used by many of the locals. The original Shangrila, inspiration for the book and movie, was clearly much further West, possibly Ladakh or the Hunza Valley. Shangri-la (also known as Zh¨­ngdi¨¤n) is home to remote temples, rugged scenery and the start of the Tibetan world. And while travellers have beat their way to northern Y¨²nn¨¢n¡¯s other ancient villages, this remote town hasn¡¯t shown up on many people¡¯s radars in the same way. But seeing the town¡¯s potential to follow in the footsteps of L¨¬ji¨¡ng and D¨¤l¨«, Zh¨­ngdi¨¤n got the attention of the government in a big way. Officials declared the town (and by extension the rest of the country) the location of British writer James Hilton¡¯s fictional Shangri-la, described in his novel The Lost Horizon. as a cynical gimmick to drum up tourism, the thing is, it¡¯s actually worked and has got everyone from backpackers to tour groups interested in visiting. Principally a Tibetan town (its Tibetan name is Gyeltang or Gyalthang) the main reason to come here is to visit the monastery and to get a taste of Tibet if you can¡¯t make it to the real thing. Shangri-la is also the last stop in Y¨²nn¨¢n for more hardy travellers looking at a rough five- or six-day journey to Ch¨¦ngd¨± via the Tibetan townships and rugged terrain of western S¨¬chu¨¡n.