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24-509: Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in northwestern Yunnan province, China. Covering an area of 23,870 km (9,220 sq mi), it is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the northwest, Sichuan province to the northeast, and other parts of Yunnan province to the southwest and southeast; Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture and Lijiang , respectively. Its capital and largest city

48-520: A British missionary, Miss Roberta Brinklow. The plane is hijacked and flown instead over the mountains to Tibet . After a crash landing, the pilot dies, but not before telling the four (in Chinese, which only Conway speaks) to seek shelter at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La. The location is unclear, but Conway believes the plane has "progressed far beyond the western range of the Himalayas " towards

72-661: A manuscript), and then slipped away again. Rutherford gives the neurologist his manuscript, which becomes the heart of the novel. In May 1931, during the British Raj in India, the 80 white residents of Baskul are being evacuated to Peshawar due to revolution. In the aeroplane of the Maharajah of Chandrapore are: Conway, the British consul, aged 37; Charles Mallinson, his young vice-consul; an American, Henry D. Barnard; and

96-406: A mountain more than 28,000 feet high. Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave, but Chang politely puts him off. The others eventually decide they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow because she wants to teach the people a sense of sin; Barnard because he is really Chalmers Bryant (wanted by the police for stock fraud) and because he is keen to develop the gold mines in the valley; and Conway because

120-602: A secretary at the British embassy. A chance remark by a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a British consul in Afghanistan , who disappeared under odd circumstances. Later in the evening, Rutherford reveals to the neurologist that, after the disappearance, he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in Chung-Kiang (probably Chongqing ), China , suffering from amnesia . Conway recovered his memory, told Rutherford his story (which Rutherford recorded in

144-555: Is Shangri-La . Diqing Prefecture is divided into three county-level divisions: Shangri-La, Deqin County , and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County . They were all formerly under the administration of Lijiang (located southeast of this prefecture). Diqing Prefecture was established in 1957 and named by its first governor. The prefecture's name is derived from the Tibetan word བདེ་ཆེན ( dêqên ), which means "auspicious place". In Chinese,

168-569: Is in the southern part of a historical region called Kham , which belonged to the Tibetan Empire many centuries ago. After the decline of that empire in the 9th century, peripheral areas like southern Kham remained part of Tibet more in an ethnographical than a political sense. As a practical matter, by the mid-1700s, the Tibetan Government had mostly lost control of Kham to Manchu (Qing) China and that situation lasted until

192-564: Is one exception: Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture contains two prefectures of its own. Under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China , autonomous prefectures cannot be abolished. The PRC's autonomous administrative divisions may be found in the first (or top) to third levels of its national administrative divisions thus: Lost Horizon (novel) Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton . The book

216-567: The prefectural level , with either ethnic minorities forming over 50% of the population or being the historic home of significant minorities. Autonomous prefectures are mostly majority Han Chinese by population. The official name of an autonomous prefecture includes the most significant minority in that region, sometimes two, rarely three. For example, a Kazakh ( Kazak in official naming system) prefecture may be called Kazak Zizhizhou . Like all other prefectural level divisions, autonomous prefectures are divided into county level divisions . There

240-464: The administration of Lijiang . The Autonomous Prefecture was established in 1957 and named "Diqing" by its first governor. During the remainder of the 20th century, the prefecture's capital was called Zhongdian but was renamed on December 17, 2001 as Shangri-La City (other spellings: Semkyi'nyida, Xianggelila or Xamgyi'nyilha) after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon , with an eye toward promoting tourism in

264-1500: The area. On June 25, 2007 the Pudacuo National Park was established on 500 square miles (1,300 km) in this prefecture. On January 11, 2014, there was a major fire in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood of the capital city Shangri-La, causing much damage and hardship. Autonomous prefecture Provinces Autonomous regions Sub-provincial autonomous prefectures Autonomous prefectures Leagues (Aimag) (abolishing) Prefectures Provincial-controlled cities Provincial-controlled counties Autonomous counties County-level cities Districts Ethnic districts Banners (Hoxu) Autonomous banners Shennongjia Forestry District Liuzhi Special District Wolong Special Administrative Region Workers and peasants districts Ethnic townships Towns Subdistricts Subdistrict bureaux Sum Ethnic sum County-controlled districts County-controlled district bureaux (obsolete) Management committees Town-level city Areas Villages · Gaqa · Ranches Village Committees Communities Capital cities New areas Autonomous administrative divisions National Central Cities History: before 1912 , 1912–49 , 1949–present Autonomous prefectures ( Chinese : 自治州 ; pinyin : zìzhìzhōu ) are one type of autonomous administrative divisions of China , existing at

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288-498: The contemplative scholarly life suits him. A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another postulant at the lamasery. She does not speak English, but plays the harpsichord. Mallinson falls in love with her, as does Conway, though more languidly. Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an unheard-of honor. He learns that the lamasery was constructed in its present form by a Catholic monk named Perrault from Luxembourg , in

312-401: The early eighteenth century. The lamasery has since then been joined by others who have found their way into the valley. Once they have done so, their aging slows; if they then leave the valley, they age quickly and die. Conway guesses correctly that the High Lama is Perrault, now 250 years old. In a later audience, the High Lama reveals that he is finally dying, and that he wants Conway to lead

336-693: The end of the Manchu Dynasty in 1912. Southern Kham along with other parts of Yunnan were ruled by the Yunnan clique from 1915 until 1927. Then it was controlled by Governor and warlord Long (Lung) Yun until near the end of the Chinese Civil War , when Du Yuming removed him under the order of Chiang Kai-shek . There are three county-level divisions in this prefecture: Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian), Deqin County and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County (formerly Weixi) and they all were under

360-399: The lamasery. The High Lama then dies. Conway contemplates the events. Hours after the High Lama dies, Conway is outside still pondering the events while in the moonlight. Mallinson then grabs him by the arm and tells Conway he has arranged to leave the valley with porters and Lo-Tsen. Barnard and Brinklow have decided to stay. The porters and Lo-Tsen are waiting for him five kilometers outside

384-460: The less known heights of the Kuen-Lun mountain range. The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang, a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English. The lamasery has modern conveniences, like central heating, bathtubs from Akron, Ohio , a large library, a grand piano , a harpsichord , and food from the fertile valley below. Towering above is Karakal, literally translated as "Blue Moon,"

408-475: The main means of transportation to reach Diqing Prefecture. The major highway in this prefecture is China National Highway 214 (a Yunnan- Tibet - Qinghai highway abbreviated "G214"). There are also direct bus routes to Kunming , Lijiang and Panzhihua (Sichuan). Diqing Prefecture is divided into three county-level divisions: Shangri-La , Deqin County , and Weixi Lisu Autonomous County . མཇོལ་རྫོང་། Jol Zong mjol rdzong This prefecture

432-601: The most popular novels of the 20th Century. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Presidential hideaway in Maryland , now called Camp David , after Shangri-La. In 1942, to ensure the safety of returning U.S. forces, Roosevelt answered a reporter's question about the origin of the Doolittle Raid by saying it had been launched from " Shangri-La ". The true details of the raid were revealed to

456-653: The name is written with the characters 迪 ( dí ) and 庆 ( qìng ), which mean "to enlighten" and "to celebrate", respectively. Alternate English names include Dechen and Deqing . Diqing Shangri-La Airport , also known simply as Diqing Airport, is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of the Yunnan Province. It is located about 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the center of Shangri-La City . There are flights to Lhasa , Chengdu , Beijing (via Kunming ), Shanghai Pudong , Shenzhen (via Guiyang ), Guangzhou , Kunming and Xishuangbanna . Highways are

480-530: The neurologist that he attempted to track Conway and verify some of his claims of Shangri-La. He found the Chung-Kiang doctor who had treated Conway. The doctor said Conway had been brought in by a Chinese woman, who was ill and died soon after. She was old, the doctor had told Rutherford, "Most old of anyone I have ever seen," implying that it was Lo-Tsen, aged drastically by her departure from Shangri-La. The narrator wonders whether Conway can find his way back to his lost paradise. The book, published in 1933, caught

504-406: The notice of the public only after Hilton's Goodbye, Mr. Chips was published in 1934. Lost Horizon became a huge popular success and in 1939 was published in paperback form, as Pocket Book #1 , making it the first "mass-market" paperback . By the 1960s, Pocket Books alone, over the course of more than 40 printings, had sold several million copies of Lost Horizon , helping to make it one of

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528-458: The public a year later. This inspired the naming of the Essex -class aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La (CV-38) , commissioned in 1944. Lost Horizon ' s concept of Shangri-La has gone on to influence other quasi-Asian mystical locations in fiction including Marvel Comics ' K'un L'un and DC Comics ' Nanda Parbat . The book has been adapted for film three times: The book served as

552-477: The valley, but he cannot traverse the dangerous route alone, so he convinces Conway to go along and assist him. Conway is caught, divided between the two worlds. Ultimately, because of his love for the boy, he decides to join Mallinson. This ends Rutherford's manuscript. The last time Rutherford saw Conway, it appeared he was preparing to make his way back to Shangri-La. Rutherford completes his account by telling

576-478: Was turned into a film, also called Lost Horizon , in 1937 by director Frank Capra and a lavish musical remake in 1973 by producer Ross Hunter with music by Burt Bacharach . It is the origin of Shangri-La , a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet . The prologue and epilogue are narrated by a neurologist. This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof , Berlin , by their old school-friend Wyland,

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