Hallelujah Mountain

Matt and I just went to see Avatar, since we are in Beijing! I was a little put out by the 120 yuan tickets (about 18$), but Matt informed me that for us, this was a once in a lifetime chance to see Avatar in 3d, in a theatre. Dang his logic. Big cities are the only places that have movie theatres, and most aren't equipped to handle 3d... so it was a true story.

Anyways... to the point of the post. Remember when I blogged about our visit to Zhangjiajie? Well, the 'floating mountains' are totally reminiscent of the peaks in that National Park. Seriously! The mountains in the movie were partially inspired by this place.

After the release of the movie, the tourism directors in Zhangjiajie decided to change the name of one of the peaks to Hallelujah Mountain (article here). It also talks about how China has effectively banned Avatar in China, only allowing it to be seen in 3d, since there aren't too many places that can show it. Weird eh? Name a mountain after it, but don't let anyone see the reason why... (and if we learned anything from Harry Potter, its that if you want everyone to see something, tell them they can't)

The moral of the story is... I have come as close as humanly possible to visiting Pandora. And it looks just as epic in real life, even if the pillars aren't floating!