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Deqen
 Visitors to the Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
will surely find themselves in a land where mysterious tranquillity is
harmoniously blended with the ever-changing scenery.
Three snow-capped mountains - Meili, Baimang and Haba - tower
magnificently over the landscape, crisscrossed by the Jinsha (Golden
Sand) and Lancang (Mekong) rivers which are flanked by overhanging
cliffs. Snowy peaks form a huge backdrop whose beauty is a feast to
behold. Mirror-like plateau lakes, scattered over the vast expanse of
grassland, look like numerous agates inlaid in a huge emerald carpet,
their idyllic quietness exuding majestic quality.
 Cattle graze leisurely in the meadows, where exotic flowers and
luxuriant grass wave against the gentle breeze, and in the depth of
the virgin forests is a world of rare birds and animals.
Mother Nature has endowed Deqen with immeasurable wealth, making the
land a happy home for the 100,000 Tibetans, Lisus, Naxis and Yis.
Brave and industrious, these Deqen people work and live as one family.
Three counties, Zhongdian, Deqin, and Weixi are under the jurisdiction
of the Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, located in a delta where
northwest Yunnan borders on Sichuan and Tibet.
The prefecture is in the center of a famous scenic area where three
mighty rivers converge. Against the majestic backdrop of a blue smudge
of snowy mountains, rivers winds their way through meadows, forests
extends as wide as an ocean. and there is an abundance of flora and
fauna. Poets always liken the prefecture to a paradise under heaven.
 The mysterious and bewitching Zhongdian County, where the prefecture
is headquartered, is the setting for the "Shangri-la", a hidden
paradise in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. A highway links
Zhongdian to Kunming over a distance of 700 kilometres, and by 1999 an
airline will have been commissioned between the two places. |
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