The Avatar mountains are real. Here is where they are.

What it is called

The pillar most people photograph is the Qiankun Pillar, roughly 1,080 m above sea level. In January 2010 the park officially renamed it “Hallelujah Mountain” after the film. On signs and maps you will see the Chinese names and “Yuanjiajie”; “Avatar mountains” is a visitors’ nickname, not a place name, so navigate by Yuanjiajie.

There are more than 3,000 of these quartz-sandstone pillars in the park, many over 200 m tall. Yuanjiajie is where the tallest free-standing ones cluster in view of a walkway.

How to get there

• It is inside the national forest park, on the same ticket — nothing extra to buy.
• Enter at the East gate and take the Bailong Elevator up (326 m, about a minute and a half). From the top station it is about 1.1 km to the shuttle-bus stop for Yuanjiajie.
• The Yuanjiajie cliff path is railed and mostly flat. Three stops: the Lost Soul Platform (Mihuntai), the Hallelujah pillar, and the First Bridge Under Heaven, a natural arch. Allow one to three hours.
• On foot instead of the lift: the Luanchuanpo trail climbs about 2.3 km from the valley, roughly an hour and a half of steep steps.

Photographs and timing

• Early morning and the morning after rain are best — the mist in the gaps between the pillars is what makes the photographs. Midday light is flat.
• This is the busiest stretch of path in the park. Being on the first lift up makes a real difference.
• The standard one-day route continues from Yuanjiajie to Tianzi Mountain and the cable car down; see the park page.