This weekend viewers will be transported once more into the lesser known parts of China for the second part of BBC2's breathtaking Wild China series.

On Sunday night, the broadcaster will air its documentary on the region of Shangri-la in the remote south-west of the country.

Its name, which translates as "the spiritual land of peace and perfection", was inaugurated in 2002 in a bid to attract more tourists to the area formally known as Zhongdian.

As the programme spectacularly depicts, this part of the world is one of staggering natural beauty and the biodiversity of its lush jungles is so rich that it is comparable to the likes of the Amazon rainforests.

A far cry from the bustling streets and modern buildings of China's urban hubs, here is a world which remains virtually untouched by human development.

As such these remote forests are thriving with wildlife – playing host to some of the highest-living primates in the world as well as wild elephants and the endangered Yunnan golden monkey.

Its beauty is making the area ever more popular with visitors, with peopleandplanet.net reporting that Shangri-la - just a 45-minute flight from Kunming's international airport - welcomed 128,000 travellers last year.

Back to News