Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is world-renowned for its over 3,000 towering quartz-sandstone pillars. Rising hundreds of meters into fog and atmospheric mist, these rock spires create a ethereal, weightless illusion where mountains seem to float in mid-air.
Unlike traditional limestone karst topography formed by chemical dissolution, Zhangjiajie’s pillars are the product of physical erosion. Millions of years of physical ice expansion during winter freezes and torrential rain runoff carved away soft layers, leaving behind dense, weather-resistant quartz sandstone monoliths.
Southern Sky Column, measuring 1,080 meters (3,540 ft) in height, was officially renamed Avatar Hallelujah Mountain in 2010 after serving as the main visual prototype for James Cameron's blockbuster movie Avatar.