My wife wanted me to join her on a trip to Lijian and the Yunnan province in China, but I had refused ... until she said, “It includes Shangri La!”

Shangri La has captivated my imagination ever since I saw the 1973 movie Lost Horizon. Is there really a Garden of Eden, a mystical valley hidden somewhere in the Himalayas, an idyllic place of refuge where happy and content people live almost immortal lives that are cut off from the strife and pain of the outside world?