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Shangri-La exists, or alternatively in Tibetan Semkyi’nyida. Actually the plan had been to go to Tibet, but there was a permit necessary and at the time there was a rule that minimum two foreigners had to apply together, however my friend was Chinese. So she went to Tibet alone, I stayed a few more days in Lanzhou, the capital of the province Gansu in the northwest, and we met then in Shangri-La.

The town was originally named Zhongdian and is located in Yunnan Province in the south of China, bordering Tibet.

Outside of Shangri-La are some kind of hostels from where the beginnings of the Himalaya mountains can be seen. My friend had advised me on booking a room there, but there was no heating on the room, only under the mattress in the bed.

The writing is on the wall. The town with the nearby Ganden Sumtseling Monastery might have been inspiration for James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, therefore the name change of town and county to Shangri-La.

On a cold day we visited the mentioned Ganden Sumtseling Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery located about five kilometres from the city of Shangri-La at an elevation of 3380 metres.

Amazing place. It was built in 1679 and is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace as it is the largest monastery in Yunnan province.

After Shangri-La we visited the nearby town of Lijiang. It is a place that almost reminds of the Provence, but it can be noted that it is larger and more developed than the more rural Shangri-La.