Originally called the Southern Sky Column, a mountain in the city of Zhangjiajie was renamed on Monday as the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. Apparently, photographs of the mountains had inspired the scenery for Avatar’s fictional world of Pandora, including the floating Hallelujah Mountains featured in the film.
Avatar is now the most popular film ever in China, and Zhangjiajie is capitalizing on the movie’s overwhelming success. In fact, the municipal government has even adopted a brand new slogan: “Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near.”
Written and directed by Titanic’s James Cameron, Avatar is a visually stunning film about the struggle between humans and the indigenous Na’vi people of Pandora. It has since become my favorite movie of all time and I’m admittedly a die-hard fan. I’ve already watched it twice in the theater!
I might just have to visit the Avatar Mountain on my trip to China this year.
