Avatar Inspires New Name for a Chinese Mountain

Who needs to watch Avatar on a 2D screen when you can visit Pandora in person?

Or at least the Chinese version of the movie’s alien world. Perhaps seeking to cash in on the success of the James Cameron blockbuster, a national park in Hunan province has decided to rename one of its mountains after the film.

    Zhangjiajie government photo
    The newly re-christened “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”

On Monday, the peak formerly known as “South Sky Pillar” (or “Heaven and Earth Pillar”) officially had its name changed to “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.” The local government of Zhangjiajie, where the park is located, says on its Web site that the striking tall and craggy formations in the area served as the inspiration for the floating mountains seen in the film, citing a visit by a Hollywood photographer to the park in 2008. (Cameron himself, it should be noted, reportedly said the famed Huangshan range in Anhui province was the source of the film’s scenery, leading to some debate among Chinese netizens.)

The “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” is one of around 3,000 such peaks in Wulingyan national park, itself a Unesco World Heritage Site that doesn’t exactly lack for tourists. But the new link probably won’t hurt, given the huge success of Avatar in China. The film set a new box-office record in just 15 days, grossing $100 million to date, and leading to choruses of frustration whe.

n it was pulled from 2D screens to make room for a domestically produced Confucius biopic.

Already the local branch of state-run travel agency CITS is also promoting the connection to film — Reuters report that they are offering a “Magical tour to Avatar-Pandora” and a “Miracle tour to Avatar’s floating mountain.”

–Sky Canaves