Shangri-La

plural Shangri-Las · alternative Shangri-la

1. A place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.

   With the fragmented policy-making system which results, America is a Shangri-La for interest groups and lobbyists.

   1989, Clive S. Thomas, “Understanding Interest Group Activity in the American States”, in D. K. Adams, editor, Studies in US Politics, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 182

   5 more examples

   He spoke a kind of Chinese that I don't understand very well, but I think he said something about a lamasery near here—along the valley, I gathered—where we could get food and shelter. Shangri-La, he called it. La is Tibetan for mountain-pass. He was most emphatic that we should go there.

   [1933 September, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, published October and November 1933 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 64

   The length of the journey gives a measure of the anachronism, which as [César] Vallejo said in one of his stories made the hill town a Shangri-La, forgotten by the rest of Peru.

   1976, Jean Franco, “Poetry as a Mode of Existence”, in César Vallejo: The Dialectics of Poetry and Silence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN; 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 2

   He couldn't believe it when he'd discovered there actually was a town called Bedford Falls. It seemed like fans of the film had all collected there to live out their lives in a self-created 1940s American Shangri-la.

   1989, Grant Naylor [i.e., Rob Grant and Doug Naylor], Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN

   Tiki Style was forged in the business of bars and restaurants and celebrated in backyard luaus and at theme parks like Disneyland and roadside attractions such as Tiki Gardens. As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the popularity of the neighborhood Tiki lounge soared.

   2004, Otto von Stroheim, “Introduction”, in Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art, San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco; The Shooting Gallery, →ISBN, page 8

   The human species was lucky, because the only time in the development of bacterial populations when diversity is sacrificed for reproductive expediency is during the exponential burst of growth that follows their discovery of an unprotected ecosystem. The two notable instances in which bacteria find these Shangri Las are in test tubes filled with fresh media and in naive animals that have not seen these particular bacteria in recent immunological memory.

   2007, J. William Costerton, “Replacement of Acute Planctonic by Chronic Biofilm Diseases”, in Christina Eckey, editor, The Biofilm Primer, Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN

   Synonyms: Xanadu, paradise, utopia, heaven

2. An opulent building or resort that provides entertainment or luxurious living.

   Well-known architects of the day, like Willis Polk, Albert Farr and Julia Morgan, designed some of the early mansions. Gordon Blanding, millionaire patron of the arts, bought the island's southern tip and built a Shangri La for his San Francisco friends.

   1975, Jack Mason, Helen Van Cleave Park, The Making of Marin (1850-1975), North Shore Books, page 111

   Synonyms: pleasure palace, pleasuredome, Xanadu

alternative Shangri-la

1. A county-level city of Diqing prefecture, Yunnan, China.

   The popular tourist city of Shangri-La will complete its new round of afforestation projects, with a total of 1.1 million trees planted by the end of 2020.

   2020 June 18, “Shangri-La city to further combine ecological, economic benefits”, in China Daily, archived from the original on 24 Jun 2020

   2 more examples

   This article therefore draws attention to local villagers and tourists who took part in my 2013 ethnographic fieldwork in Niru Village, Shangri-La City, Southwest China.

   2019, Jundan Zhang, “Tourism and environmental subjectivities in the Anthropocene: observations from Niru Village, Southwest China”, in Journal of Sustainable Tourism, volume 27, number 4, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2021, pages 488–502

   This paper explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of a multi-ethnolinguistic city in China, namely Shangri-La City, where Tibetan, Han (Mandarin Chinese), English and several other minority languages are used.

   2023, Peng Nie, Jiazhou Yao, Namgyal Tashi, “Mapping the linguistic landscape from a multi-factor perspective: the case of a multi-ethnolinguistic city in China”, in International Journal of Multilingualism, volume 20, number 2, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2026, pages 231–249

2. USgovernmentFormer name of Camp David.

plural Shangri-las

1. Alternative letter-case form of Shangri-La.

   He couldn't believe it when he'd discovered there actually was a town called Bedford Falls. It seemed like fans of the film had all collected there to live out their lives in a self-created 1940s American Shangri-la.

   1989, Grant Naylor [i.e., Rob Grant and Doug Naylor], Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Tiki Style was forged in the business of bars and restaurants and celebrated in backyard luaus and at theme parks like Disneyland and roadside attractions such as Tiki Gardens. As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the popularity of the neighborhood Tiki lounge soared.

   2004, Otto von Stroheim, “Introduction”, in Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art, San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco; The Shooting Gallery, →ISBN, page 8