The opera has been devised and produced by CCAT, which will perform it at a cost of over 3 million yuan (360,000 US dollars).

Shangri-La first came to the world's attention in 1933 in the book "Lost Horizon" by English writer James Hilton, as a wonderland where local people lived a happy, contented and peaceful idyllic life.

But a long time before Hilton's book, Shangri-La had been created in an ancient Tibetan kingdom in Diqing county in southwest China's Yunnan province.

The story mainly tells of the trials and tribulations of a good-natured people in their pursuit of the holy realm of Shangri-La.

According to CCAT president Ouyang Yibing, the opera has integrated a unique ethnic Tibetan flavor with modern artistic methods to effect a strong poetic effect.

The setting is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the gorgeous costumes are borrowed from typical Tibetan traditional dress, with110 hand-made suits designed for 34 performers, who will shoot arrows and "fly" on stage.

The name Shangri-La meant great harmony among people, nature, and the spiritual and material worlds, Ouyang Yibing said. The opera was expected to make the audience ponder deeply over the nature of reality.

( People's Daily October 11, 2002)