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Shangri La County
Shangri La County
	Location of Shangri-La County (pink) and Diqing prefecture (yellow) within Yunnan province of China
	; Shangri La County Location within Yunnan, China
	Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°42.1′E / 27.833°N 99.7017°E
Country	China
Province	Yunnan
Prefecture	Diqing Prefecture
	Area
- Total	11,613 km2 (4,483.8 sq mi)
	Population
- Total	130,000
- Density	11.2/km2 (29/sq mi)
Postal code	674400
Area code(s)	0887
Website	http://www.xianggelila.org/

Gandan Sumtseling Monastery

Tibetan houses in the outskirts of Zhongdian

Shangri-La County (simplified Chinese: 香格里拉县; traditional Chinese: 香格里拉縣; pinyin: Xiānggélǐlā Xiàn) is a primarily Tibetan county in northwestern Yunnan Province in southwest China and the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

[edit] Name

The county was formerly called Zhongdian County (Chinese: 中甸县 Zhōngdiàn Xiàn) but was renamed in 2001 after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. The local Tibetan population refers to it by the name Gyalthang (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་). "Shangri-La" or "Zhongdian" may also refer to Jiantang Town (建塘镇 Jiàntáng Zhèn), the capital of the county.

[edit] Towns

[edit] National Park

Pudacuo National Park

[edit] Transport

The town's airport is Diqing Airport. Covering an area of 225 hectares, it is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of Yunnan Province. There are flights to Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Many travelers use the county town as a gateway into Tibet, either travelling many days overland by jeep to Lhasa, or by flying from the city's airport. However, the town itself is a tourist destination, primarily due to the nearby Gandan Sumtseling Monastery (Chinese: 松赞林寺 Sōngzànlín Sì), Pudacuo National Park, and Tiger Leaping Gorge.
China National Highway 214