Thousands of sandstone pillars rise vertically from subtropical jungle, wreathed in mist — so alien that James Cameron used them as reference for the floating mountains of Pandora in Avatar.
For 300 million years, quartz sandstone eroded away, leaving behind more than 3,000 quartzite pillars and peaks jutting from a sea of subtropical forest. Some rise over 200 meters. The tallest, Southern Sky Column, tops 1,080 meters.
James Cameron's production designers walked these paths in 2008 and were so struck that Pandora's Hallelujah Mountains became a direct translation. The local Tujia people had been living among these formations for millennia, calling them tiān zhù — heavenly pillars.
In the mornings, low cloud fills the valleys between pillars, making each formation appear to float. The effect is architectural — as if some civilization had built these towers and then abandoned them. As if nature was imitating something from a dream you once had and forgot.