Shangri-La County

Shangri-La County Zhongdian County · 中甸县
Chinese transcription(s)
– Simplified	香格里拉县
– Traditional	香格里拉縣
– Pinyin	Xiānggélǐlā Xiàn
Tibetan transcription(s)
– Tibetan script	རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་།
– Wylie	rgyal thang rdzong
– Tibetan pinyin	Gyaitang Zong
Location of Shangri-La County (pink) and Diqing prefecture (yellow) within Yunnan province of China
Shangri-La Location within Yunnan
Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°42′E / 27.833°N 99.7°E / 27.833; 99.7
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Yunnan
Prefecture	Dêqên
Area
– Total	11,613 km2 (4,483.8 sq mi)
Population
– Total	130,000
– Density	11.2/km2 (29/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	674400
Area code(s)	0887
Website	http://www.xianggelila.org/

Shangri-La County (Chinese: 香格里拉县; Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་།)is a primarily Tibetan county in northwestern Yunnan province, Southwest China and is the location of the seat of the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

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་), which is the Tibetan name for Jiantang Town (建塘镇 Jiàntáng Zhèn), the county seat.

Towns

• Jiantang Town
• Zhongdian Town
• Hutiaoxia Town
• Jinjiang Town
• Luoji Township

Climate

Shangri-La has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb), with influences from the monsoon and the high elevation. Winters are chilly but sunny, with nighttime lows often dropping below −15 °C (5 °F), while summers are cool, with daytime highs of around 19 °C (66 °F), and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. Except during the summer, nights are usually sharply cooler than the days. Despite the dryness of the winter, the small amount of precipitation is generally sufficient to cause major transportation dislocations and isolate the area between November and March.

Climate data for Shangri-La (1971−2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	18.3 (64.9)	16.2 (61.2)	21.5 (70.7)	22.7 (72.9)	24.2 (75.6)	25.6 (78.1)	25.4 (77.7)	25.1 (77.2)	23.8 (74.8)	20.9 (69.6)	18.8 (65.8)	17.9 (64.2)	25.6 (78.1)
Average high °C (°F)	6.3 (43.3)	6.7 (44.1)	9.2 (48.6)	12.5 (54.5)	17.0 (62.6)	19.2 (66.6)	19.3 (66.7)	18.9 (66.0)	17.4 (63.3)	14.7 (58.5)	11.0 (51.8)	8.2 (46.8)	13.4
Average low °C (°F)	−11.2 (11.8)	−7.4 (18.7)	−3.6 (25.5)	−0.5 (31.1)	3.4 (38.1)	8.4 (47.1)	9.8 (49.6)	9.1 (48.4)	7.4 (45.3)	1.3 (34.3)	−5.8 (21.6)	−10.6 (12.9)	0.0
Record low °C (°F)	−23.9 (−11.0)	−20.2 (−4.4)	−17.5 (0.5)	−10 (14)	−7.4 (18.7)	−2.1 (28.2)	1.1 (34.0)	1.0 (33.8)	−3 (27)	−11.1 (12.0)	−16.5 (2.3)	−27.4 (−17.3)	−27.4 (−17.3)
Precipitation mm (inches)	7.8 (0.307)	14.4 (0.567)	34.8 (1.37)	32.4 (1.276)	25.9 (1.02)	80.2 (3.157)	157.4 (6.197)	151.3 (5.957)	80.6 (3.173)	44.5 (1.752)	12.7 (0.5)	4.9 (0.193)	646.9 (25.469)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	4.2	6.6	9.3	11.1	11.5	17.9	23.2	23.1	19.3	10.1	4.0	2.1	142.4
Source: Weather China

National park

Gandan Sumtseling Monastery

Tibetan houses in the outskirts of Zhongdian

• Pudacuo National Park, the first national park in China to meet IUCN standards, also incorporates the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.

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

See also

• Shangri-La
• Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas - UNESCO World Heritage Site

External links

• Shangri-La County Official Website
• Shangrila from Wikitravel

Coordinates: 27°50′N 99°42.1′E / 27.833°N 99.7017°E / 27.833; 99.7017