http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangrila
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost
Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La"
is 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 but particularly a
mythical Himalayan utopia—a permanently happy land, isolated from
the outside world. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of
the Orient. The story of Shangri-La is based on the concept of
Shambhala, a mystical city in Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet
Existing as a separate nation for centuries, Tibet is today
administered mostly under the People's Republic of China. Tibet is
also officially claimed by the Republic of China (Taiwan). However
in the Tibetan sovereignty debate, the government of the People's
Republic of China and the Government of Tibet in Exile disagree
over when Tibet became a part of China, and whether this
incorporation into China is legitimate according to international
law.
Neither the Republic of China nor the People's Republic of China
has ever renounced China's claim to sovereignty over Tibet.[18] In
1950, the People's Liberation Army invaded the Tibetan area of
Chamdo, crushing minimal resistance from the ill-equipped Tibetan
army. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives, under PLA military
pressure, signed a seventeen-point agreement with PRC's Central
People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The
agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.[19][20]
