Shangri-La--Eastern Eden

Author: Xu Jiaguo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: "The earliest place where the sun shines is Jianfang in the east, the most extraordinary place in the world is Shangri-La by the milk river." Here are tranquil and transcendent lakes, stones full of spiritual energy, azure and far-reaching skies, vast and boundless mountains and rivers, magnificent and beautiful gorges, grand and magnificent temples, and wise and enlightened lamas. The meadows here are covered with wildflowers in full bloom, always filled with a romantic atmosphere of joyful times. The people here live in harmony because they have deities in their hearts, giving them a natural acceptance of fate. This is the mysterious land described by British novelist James Hilton in Lost Horizon, hidden among the eastern mountains—the Shangri-La. In Tibetan, Diqing means "a place of auspiciousness and good fortune," while Shangri-La, in Tibetan, means "the sun and moon in one's heart." In 1993, James Hilton first depicted an eternal and peaceful land of tranquility, "Shangri-La," in his novel Lost Horizon. Experts at home and abroad, after extensive research, believe that the prototype of "Shangri-La" in Hilton's novel lies within the Diquan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province. On September 14, 1997, the Yunnan Provincial People's Government held a press conference to announce to the world that "Shangri-La is in Diquan." Since then, Shangri-La has become synonymous with Diquan, and people flock to it, seeking their own "Shangri-La" in their hearts.