Zhangjiajie denies renaming mountain after 'Avatar' site
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Deng Daoli, who works with Huanglong Cave Investment Co., Ltd, a local tourism company, said, "I would like to talk to Mr. Cameron and his team in China to arrange Avatar brand tourism here."
"Avatar" has sold 1.841 billion U.S. dollars worth of tickets worldwide, making it the biggest international release of all time. It has also become China's most popular movie ever by making around 80 million U.S. dollars here.
"Names of scenic spots often came out of the whims of tourism experts and have no particular meaning or cultural significance. The more market value the better. Obviously, Halleluja is better than South Sky Pillar in this sense," said Li Sheng, a scholar with Wuhan University.
James Cameron, director of Avatar, told the Beijing premiere of Avatar that the alien mountain, where the science fiction took place, came from east China's Mt. Huang.
Cameron's claim was soon challenged by a posting of Internet user "hldddl", who said the Halleluja Mountain was almost identical to South Sky Pillar mountain in his hometown Zhangjiajie. "Hldddl" attached pictures in the posting to back his allegations.
The posting caught the eye of local residents in Zhangjiajie, who held a ceremony and erected a poster of the two pictures on the South Sky Pillar on Monday.
Words like "Pandora is far, but Zhangjiajie is near," and "Welcome to Zhangjiajie to see 'Avatar's Hallelujah Mountains' and discover the real world of Pandora," had appeared on the tourism pages of the municipal government's website, leading to reports of the city having changed the name of the mountain to Halleluja.
