Liu Jiaxun(R), vice governor of Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province, Sheng Luosong (M), president of Beijing Sun-Shengtong Culture & Art Co.,Ltd attends  the signing ceremony on April 26, 2011 in Beijing. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

The signing ceremony for 3D Shangri-La was held in Beijing on April 26, 2011. With an investment of 50 million USD, the film to be produced by a top level Hollywood team will be multi-sponsored by certain Chinese companies whose details were deliberately mystified.

Adopting the worldwide popular 3D technology, the new interpretation of this wishful oriental romance will be a commercial yet artistic presentation of the deeply-rooted Shangri-la dream westerners have craved for since early last century.

The new 3-dimentional (3D) film adapted from "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton is to be re-filmed this October in Shangri-la, Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan.

"This is the first time for the film to be shot in the original place of where the novel story is believed to have happened," said Wang Wei, executive producer of the film.

Apart from the optimistic view about the film's economic benefits, Wang Wei said, Shangri-La is a global cultural symbol that is understandable without having to be translated. The theme of the clip will befocused on the cultural conflicts between the east and the west, as well as the exploration of universal human values through the harmonious coexistence of diversified civilizations.

Shangri-La means "sun and moon in the heart" in local Tibetan dialect.

It is a place rich in environmental and cultural resources where a number of ethnic minorities live together harmoniously, a real paradise on earth, said Liu Jiaxun, vice governor of Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Everyone has his own "Shangri-la" in his heart, as James Hilton hinted in "Lost Horizon". The 1933 best-seller was once adapted into film and musical versions separately in 1937 and 1973 by Columbia Pictures. And the film will bring audience an on-the-scene experience through the 3D effect.