Famous Landmarks Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

If you were one of the many people to fall into a deep depression after realizing you’d never be able to get to visit the land of Pandora featured in Avatar, then you might feel better after taking a trip to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. After all, the stunning natural setting was one of the biggest inspirations for the floating forests of Pandora and the most famous of the mountains has even recently been renamed the “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” in honor of the film. Even if the entire area doesn’t become a bioluminescent wonderland after dark, it is still simply gorgeous, consisting of dozens of massive, pillar-like rock formations covered in rich, natural foliage. The massive columns were created by erosion and given that the weather in the park is pretty wet all year round, it’s easy to imagine massive cliffs getting readily worn down by the constant moisture, particularly by the expanding ice that freezes the area in the winter. The area is so famous in China that it actually became the country’s first national forest park and it can be seen represented in hundreds of ancient Chinese paintings.

In 1982 it was recognized as China's first national forest park with an area of 11,900 acres. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is part of a much larger 153.5 sq mi Wulingyuan Scenic Area. In 1992, Wulingyuan was officially recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was then approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources as Zhangjiajie Sandstone Peak Forest National Geopark 1,400 sq mi in 2001. In 2004, Zhangjiajie Geopark was listed as a UNESCO Global Geopark.

The most notable geographic features of the park are the pillar-like formations that are seen throughout the park. Although resembling karst terrain, this area is not underlain by limestones and is not the product of chemical dissolution, which is characteristic of limestone karst. They are the result of many years of physical, rather than chemical, erosion. Much of the weathering which forms these pillars are the result of expanding ice in the winter and the plants which grow on them. The weather is moist year round, and as a result, the foliage is very dense. The weathered material is carried away primarily by streams. These formations are a distinct hallmark of Chinese landscape, and can be found in many ancient Chinese paintings.

One of the park's quartz-sandstone pillars, the 3,540 ft Southern Sky Column, had been officially renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain": Āfándá hālìlùyà shān in honor of the eponymous film in January 2010.[3] According to park officials, photographs from Zhangjiajie inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountains seen in the film. The film's director and production designers said that they drew inspiration for the floating rocks from mountains from around the world, including those in Hunan province.

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