Paradise discovered

There are few recent travelogues which have been written with an infectious sense of humour and feel for adventure as The “Other” Shangri-la by Shivaji Das. Shangri-la was the name given to a mythical utopia, nestling in the Himalayan mountains, in the popular novel by the same name authored by James Hilton in the 1930s. Yunnan province was first off the mark in “rediscovering” Shangri-la in its own Tibetan borderlands. The original name of the locality was Zhongdian county but was renamed Shangri-la in 2001. The competing Shangri-la in Sichuan is located in the Yading Nature Reserve which is the