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Destination:
BEIJING, China
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Chinese
county, chasing tourism, changes its name to Shangri-La
BEIJING - Casting themselves as a promised land known the world
over, officials in southwestern China have renamed their impoverished
county Shangri-La, predicting the change will draw hordes of tourists
seeking paradise.
Zhongdian County's name change was approved by China's cabinet
and announced Monday by the vice governor of southwestern Yunnan
province, Shao Qiwei, the state-run newspaper China Daily said
Tuesday.
"The renaming definitely will boost the booming tourism of the
region," the paper quoted Shao as saying.
Zhongdian was one of two impoverished Yunnan counties that laid
claim to the birthplace of Shangri-La -- the heaven on earth that
James Hilton described in his pacifist 1933 novel "Lost Horizon."
The British author described a rich, isolated Tibetan valley overseen
by a wizened high lama. It was a place where the living was easy
with free love and flush toilets. Human beings remained young
for hundreds of years and pursued their dreams away from the polluting
forces of the outside world.
Four years later, legendary American director Frank Capra made
the novel into a now-classic movie starring Ronald Colman and
Jane Wyatt.
Zhongdian and Deqin, the neighboring county with which it quarreled
for the Shangri-La title, both lie in Yunnan's mountains close
to the province's frontier with Tibet. Both counties marshaled
obscure travel accounts and esoteric scholarly findings to back
their claims.
"Shangri-La is no more just a distant imaginary haven," the China
Daily gushed. "The paradise has been brought to earth."
It said Zhongdian's renaming will be celebrated with an arts festival
and fireworks show in May.
Shangri-La is also the name of a series of luxury hotels across
Asia.
www.summer
holiday.info
www.winter holiday.org.uk
