The Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Yunnan Province hosted 1.24 million domestic and overseas tourists in 2001, an increase of 14.3 percent year on year.

The tourists brought the prefecture a total of 883 mil-lion yuan (US$106 million) in revenue, up 24 percent, local tourism officials said.

Diqing has been promoting itself as "the Shangri-La" described by British writer James Hilton in his book "Lost Horizon," published in 1933, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Shangri-La" is said to be a Tibetan word for paradise, or an ideal place.

Local officials in Diqing point to the area's snow-capped mountains, lamaseries and people from different ethnic groups living together in harmony and peace as evidence that their prefecture enshrines the features of "Shangri-La."

( eastday.com January 04, 2002)