Shangri-La…the mystical setting in James Hilton’s 1933 novel, “Lost Horizon”…a land of green valleys and crystal-clear lakes isolated by snow-capped peaks, jagged rock formations and rivers rushing through ravines…a lost utopia where people live to 100 years old…a paradise found where the Mekong River springs to life.

Early explorers tried to trace the Mekong to Yunnan Province’s heaven on earth. Their expeditions departed northern Laos and entered China’s southern tip at Xishuangbanna (12,000 Rice Fields). They struggled to the Tibetan Plateau, though some turned back and followed the Red River through a monolithic limestone landscape to Viet Nam.