Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – an enduringly happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance.
In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, the existence of seven such places are mentioned as Nghe-Beyul Khembalung.[1] Khembalung is one of several beyuls (hidden lands similar to Shangri-La) believed to have been created by Padmasambhava in the 9th century as idyllic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists during times of strife (Reinhard, 1978).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La_City
Shangri-La (Chinese: 香格里拉; pinyin: Xiānggélǐlā, Tibetan: Gyalthang) is a county-level city in Northwestern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China and is the location of the seat of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, bordering Sichuan to the northwest, north, and east.
There are a number of cultural usages of the Shangri-La idea that have developed since 1933 in the wake of the novel and the film made from it.
United States Marine Corps guard at Shangri-La (later Camp David) on May 7, 1944
World War II[edit]
The current presidential retreat known as Camp David was briefly named “Shangri-la” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II after the city in James Hilton’s novel. Roosevelt looked at the view from the mountains and proclaimed “this is Shangri-la”. President Eisenhower would later go on to change the name in honor of his grandson David.[16][17] An unusual consequence of the Doolittle Raid of 1942 came after, when (in the interests of secrecy) President Franklin Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from "Shangri-La".[18][19] The true details of the raid were revealed to the public one year later, in April 1943.[20] In 1944, the US Navy commissioned the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La, with Doolittle's wife Josephine as the sponsor.[citation needed]
From Wiki....
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – an enduringly happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, the existence of seven such places are mentioned as Nghe-Beyul Khembalung.[1] Khembalung is one of several beyuls (hidden lands similar to Shangri-La) believed to have been created by Padmasambhava in the 9th century as idyllic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists during times of strife (Reinhard, 1978).
Also from Wiki... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La_City Shangri-La (Chinese: 香格里拉; pinyin: Xiānggélǐlā, Tibetan: Gyalthang) is a county-level city in Northwestern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China and is the location of the seat of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, bordering Sichuan to the northwest, north, and east.
There are a number of cultural usages of the Shangri-La idea that have developed since 1933 in the wake of the novel and the film made from it.
United States Marine Corps guard at Shangri-La (later Camp David) on May 7, 1944 World War II[edit] The current presidential retreat known as Camp David was briefly named “Shangri-la” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II after the city in James Hilton’s novel. Roosevelt looked at the view from the mountains and proclaimed “this is Shangri-la”. President Eisenhower would later go on to change the name in honor of his grandson David.[16][17] An unusual consequence of the Doolittle Raid of 1942 came after, when (in the interests of secrecy) President Franklin Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from "Shangri-La".[18][19] The true details of the raid were revealed to the public one year later, in April 1943.[20] In 1944, the US Navy commissioned the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La, with Doolittle's wife Josephine as the sponsor.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La