Society
Iconic mountain top renamed
By Michelle Du (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-25 19:00
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A mountain peak in China's Hunan province, which inspired Golden Globes Best Director winner James Cameron for his latest blockbuster, Avatar, was renamed today, xinhuanet.com reported.
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 The combo photo shows the "South Pillar of the Heaven" (above) in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province of China and the "Hallelujah Mountain" on the make-believe planet of Pandora in James Cameron's Avatar. [Photo/Rednet.cn] |
The management committee of the Yuanjiajie part of Wulingyuan Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie changed the name of the "South Pillar of the Heaven" (also called the "Pillar between Heaven and Earth") to "Hallelujah Mountain", a namesake floating island in the movie that circulates in the magnetic currents of the make-believe planet of Pandora.
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"We renamed the top not because we are blindly following foreign culture," said Song Zhiguang, director of the management committee of the Yuanjiajie scenic area. "We're only sending this message to the world: Zhangjiajie belongs to the world and is now known to global tourists."
According to the report, one of the "Hallelujah Mountains" in the movie is modeled after the South Pillar of the Heaven, on which a major cameraman for the movie spent four days shooting photos.
The movie's director said during a press conference last December that the "Hallelujah Mountains" were modeled after Huangshan Mountain in China's Anhui Province. He said he sent his crew to the site during preparations for the movie's alien planet scenes, but later that month a Chinese Internet user reported the original model for the mountain was not Huangshan but the South Pillar of the Heaven in Zhangjiajie. He made the determination by comparing photos of the South Pillar of the Heaven and the movie's "Hallelujah Mountain".
