Date of Issue – 13 September 2010.
On September 13, 2010 China Post issued a set of four special "Shangri-La" stamps
The set contains "Xia Wei Temple", "Green water and blue sky", "Pinghu Emerald" and "Snowy town" stamps.
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.
In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient.
In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, existence of seven such places is mentioned as Nghe-Beyul Khimpalung. One of such places is mentioned to be situated somewhere in the Makalu-Barun region.Shangri-la is often used in a similar context to which "Garden of Eden" might be used, to represent a paradise hidden from modern man.
A Tibetan girl shows the "Shangri-La" special stamp issued on Sept. 13, 2010.
The launching ceremony of the "Shangri-La" special stamps was held in the ancient Shangri-La County, Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province to celebrate the 6th Kangba Art and National Unity Festival, Sept. 13, 2010.
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