China's southwestern provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan and autonomous region of Tibet have signed a joint agreement pinpointing the site of the legendary Shangri-la which they will turn into a world-class tourist destination.

The location of the original Shangri-la in the area where the three regions converge, has long provoked heated arguments in Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet.

At an on-going western China economic coordination forum, the governments of the three regions released on Wednesday an cooperative plan which pins down the location of Shangri-La. The original Shangri-La covered a total 50 counties in nine prefectures at the junction of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, and includes the Diqing Tibetan Prefecture in Yunnan, Qamdo Prefectureand Nyingchi County in Tibet, and Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan, they said.

The three local governments promised to jointly invest 80 billion yuan (9.64 billion US dollars) in the next eight years to develop Shangri-La.

"Shangri-La", said to be a popular Tibetan word for paradise, or an ideal wonderland, became world-famous after British writer James Hilton published his book "Lost Horizon" in 1933.

Tourism started to boom in the border area in the mid 1980s andsoon became the mainstay industry in all three regions. However, problems cropped up.

The three regions have all played the "Shangri-La" card.

In 1995, the Diqing Tibetan Prefecture in Yunnan Province took the lead in proving itself to be the original site of "Shangri-la",turning the once empty plateau region into a world-famous tourist destination.

In December 2001, with the approval of the State Council, or the central Chinese government, Zhongdian county in the prefectureeven changed its name to Shangri-La county.

At the same time, its next-door neighbors, Daocheng, Xiangchengand Derong counties in Sichuan Province also claimed to be the original Shangri-La.

The popularity of the so-called Shangri-La did not work at all well together, causing a great wastage of resources.

"It's in their mutual interests for the three regions to join efforts and cooperate instead of working against each other," an official from Sichuan Tourism Planning Institute said.

The 80 billion yuan (9.64 billion US dollars) investment wouldalmost equal the total investment of the Three Gorges Dam project.

Wang Huaichen, vice-governor of Sichuan province, said that hisprovincial government would first invest a handsome sum of 4.93 billion yuan (616 million US dollars) to improve communication infrastructure. And most funding would have to rely on donations or other financing methods.

( People's Daily July 25, 2002 )