Shangri-La (, Tibetan: Gyalthang) is a county-level city in Northwestern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China and is the location of the seat of the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, bordering Sichuan to the northwest, north, and east. Name Shangri-La was formerly called Zhongdian County () but was renamed on 17 December 2001 and upgraded into a county-level city on 16 December 2014 as Shangri-La (other spellings: Semkyi'nyida, Xianggelila, or Xamgyi'nyilha) after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. Formerly, the Tibetan population referred to the city by its traditional name Gyalthang or Gyaitang (; Wylie: rgyal thang, ZWPY: Gyaitang), meaning "Royal plains". The Chinese name of the county seat, Jiantang (), reflects the pronunciation of Gyalthang. In the early morning of January 11, 2014, a fire broke out in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood. About 242 homes and shops were destroyed and 2,600 residents were displaced. About half of the old town was destroyed by the fire, half was spared. After the fire residents were allowed back to their homes and shops. By the end of 2014 rebuilding had started and tourism started to come back. Generally tourism was not affected by the fire, since the main sights in the old town, such as the prayer wheel and temples were not damaged. Many of the other main sights are located outside of the old town. Demographics and languages The southern half of the city is inhabited by the Naxi people, who speak the Naxi language, a Lolo-Burmese language separate from the Tibetic languages. The northern half is inhabited by the Khampas, who speak the southern variety of Khams Tibetan. Southwestern Mandarin is spoken by the Han Chinese throughout the city. Administrative divisions Shangri-La City has 4 towns, 6 townships and 1 ethnic township. 4 towns 6 townships 1 ethnic township Sanba Naxi Ethnic Township () Climate Shangri-La has either a dry-winter, warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dwb), or a dry-winter subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwb), both of which are unusually cool by Yunnan standards due to the high elevation, which ranges between . Winters are chilly but sunny, with a January 24-hour average temperature of , while summers are cool, with a July 24-hour average temperature of , and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered