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CHINA: ZHONGDIAN
ZHONGDIAN (Shangrila)
THE CITY:
The town is split between Tibetan and ethnic Han 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 has 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, Gyelthang. The original
Shangrila, from James Hilton's novel The Lost Horizon, was a (fictional) hidden
paradise whose inhabitants lived for centuries. Hilton (who never went to China)
located his Shangri-La in the Kunlun mountains. However, elements of his story
were apparently inspired by National Geographic articles about various places in
eastern Tibet (including Zhongdian); hence China's rationale for claiming the name.
Local Khampa Tibetans claim that the name Shangri-la was most likely derived from
their word for paradise "Shambala," by Hilton through exposure to Rock's writings
on the region..