Experience the best of Shangri-La

Shangri-La, in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan, stands at more than 3,000 metres on a plateau of grassland and pine-clad hills. The town was called Zhongdian until 2001, when it took the name of the hidden paradise in James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon. Its old quarter, Dukezong, has cobbled lanes, wooden houses and a large golden prayer wheel on a hilltop.

Songzanlin Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist complex founded in the 17th century, rises in tiers on a hillside above Napa Lake, a seasonal wetland where cattle and horses graze. Pudacuo National Park, at over 3,500 metres, has forest, lakes and marshes, and Tiger Leaping Gorge, a deep cut of the Yangtze, lies between here and Lijiang. Snow peaks rise beyond the plateau to the north.

Yak butter tea, roasted barley flour, yak meat and Tibetan hot pot are standard meals, and wild mushrooms, including matsutake, are gathered in the summer rains. The air is thin and cool all year, nights stay cold even in summer, and snow covers the hills in winter.