HALLELUJAH! RENAMING CHINESE MOUNTAIN LEADS TO A HILL OF TROUBLE

“One Japanese tourist spends the same as two Korean tourists,” said Wang Ai Ming, an official from the Hunan tourism bureau. “And one Korean spends as much as three Chinese tourists.”

Unfortunately for our minor functionary from Zhangjiajie, the Japanese and especially the Koreans haven’t been spending much lately.

While most of China’s economy has powered through the global recession, tourism has not. Remote destinations like Zhangjiajie in northwestern Hunan have been hit hard.

A mountainous region of stunning beauty in the heart of China, Zhangjiajie attracted nearly as many as half a million people in the 2006-07 season. The bulk of them came from South Korea, followed by Japan, and then so-called Greater China, includes Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But when the downturn swept east from west in late 2008, severely weakening
South Korea’s economy, the number of tourists to Zhangjiajie more than halved.

Video: Watch Adrienne's report on the TODAY show

“We had barely 200,000 visitors last year,” said Wang. And from servicing ten flights a day to and from Beijing at tourism’s height, Zhangjiajie’s tiny airport is now only handling three daily flights to and from the Chinese capital.

Zhangjiajie’s main attraction is the National Forest Park, and it’s not hard to see why. Despite brisk weather that was also uncooperatively wet, the landscape’s splendor was plenty apparent.

More than three thousand sandstone peaks -- odd geological formations shaped over a period of 380 million years -- dot the lush landscape. Shrouded in mist, the shapes lend themselves to exotic names like “48 Generals’ Peaks” or more prosaic labels like “First Natural Bridge in the World.”

A masterful plan
Despite its evident appeal, Zhangjiajie has yet to make its mark in the consciousness of Western tourists.

But following the release of the movie “Avatar” in China at the beginning of this year, the region’s tourist authorities hit upon an ingenious way to expand their reach beyond the shores of the Asian continent.

A cluster of mountains known as "48 Generals' Peaks" in Zhangjiajie.

The runaway hit broke box office records here, ringing up nearly $80 million within the first two weeks of its opening. With total earnings in China now estimated at just over $100 million, “Avatar” has become the highest grossing movie ever in China.

Tourism officials and tour operators in Zhangjiajie smelled an opportunity.

“The floating mountain in ‘Avatar’ looked like this one here,” said Deng Daoli, standing with us in front of a 3,000-feet tall mountain that looked like a stone column, tapering from bottom to top. Although only 100 or so of the estimated 3,000 peaks in the forest have been designated names, this one had several. Its official name is “Pillar of the Universe” (Qiankunyizhu in Chinese) although it’s more commonly referred to as the “Southern Sky Column” (Nantianyizhu). Now it’s got a third name.

“We re-named it Mount Hallelujah,” said Deng. As in the Hallelujah Mountains on the fictional planet of Pandora featured in the movie.

It seemed like a smart marketing move.

Not so fast. Zhangjiajie had a competitor.

"First Natural Bridge in the World" in Zhangjiajie, Hunan

A mountain of problems
Local tourism officials at Huangshan -- also known as Yellow Mountain -- in Anhui Province laid claim that theirs was the inspiration for the Hallelujah peaks. And they cited a newspaper interview with director James Cameron, during his visit to China for the movie premiere, saying that Huangshan had inspired the design of “Avatar”’s floating mountains.

That may only be partially accurate. In an interview with NBC News, Cameron said that he had “used a lot of references,” citing Venezuela and both Huangshan and Zhangjiajie in China.

And then the Zhangjiajie tourism authorities had to contend with a backlash in public opinion.

Chinese columnists and Internet users took exception to the re-naming of the “Pillar of the Universe,” criticizing the move as kowtowing to Western influences. A couple of students touring the sights the day we visited the Natural Forest summed it up thusly: “There was no need to re-name it,” said Liang Ying Zhi and Zheng Xie Wen. “The name should retain its Chinese essence.”

And so officials in Zhangjiajie backtracked, saying they had not changed the name after all.

"Southern Sky Column" or "Pillar of the Universe" or "Mt Hallelujah"

None of this, however, has deterred Deng or Wang. Both of them were quick to point out that names like “Pillar of the Universe” or “Southern Sky Column” are only a few years old and were given for the same reason as adding a new one: to generate attention and to attract tourists.

“We have 3,000 mountains here,” said Wang. “Naming them isn’t a big deal! Just pick a name, any name.”

Name or no name, there nevertheless will be a new slogan to sustain the region’s re-branding. An official involved in overseeing the promotion of Zhangjiajie told us they would be launching a new campaign in April, featuring the phrase, “Pandora is far … but Zhangjiajie is near.”