Diqing Counties Travel Guide

Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture or Shangri-la is located in a delta where northwest Yunnan borders on Sichuan and Tibet. With three counties, Zhongdian, Deqin, and Weixi under its jurisdiction.Diqing is Tibetan for "auspicious place." It is the only Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Yunnan Province, and also one of the ten Tibetan autonomous prefectures in the country. Located at the juncture of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet, Diqing is a strategic passage from Yunnan to Tibet and was a pivotal point on the Ancient Tea-Horse Trail.

Located at the central of the world natural heritage of "the-three-parallel-river-area", middle of the Hengduan Mountains which is the south section of the Qingzang Plateau, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Diqing is a world Class-A geomorphologic and geological nature and history heritage, and the seat of the new oceanic glacier with the lowest altitude at the same latitude zone, with the typical research value in geology, and in protecting lives variety, rare cultural value and particular sightseeing value.

Administration Subdivisions
Diqing is divided into three counties, among which one is an autonomous county.

Map	#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Tibetan	Population (2003 est.)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
	1	Shangri-La County	香格里拉县	Xiānggélǐlā Xiàn	རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་། (Gyalthang)	130,000	11,613	11
	2	Deqin County	德钦县	Déqīn Xiàn	མཇོལ་རྫོང་། (Jol)	60,000	7,596	8
	3	Weixi Lisu Autonomous County	维西傈僳族 自治县	Wéixī Lìsùzú Zìzhìxiàn	འབའ་ལུང་ལི་སུའུ་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཛོང་། (Balung)	140,000	4,661	30