Society

The global blockbuster Avatar is so successful that local residents in central China want their mountains to be named after the floating rocks in the movie, "the Hallelujah Mountains."

Hundreds of locals in ethnic Tujia costumes launched an "official ceremony" Monday to rename the Qiankunzhu mountains, prototypes for "the Hallelujah Mountains."

The peak is 1,074 meters above the sea level and one of more than 3,000 mountains in the Yuanjiajie Scenic Spot, the core area of the World Natural Heritage Wulingyuan Scenic Zone in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province.

Hollywood photographers spent four days shooting there in 2008. His pictures became the prototypes for many elements in "Avatar", said Song Zhiguang, director of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Spot Administration.

Visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer visits the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, Jan. 21, 2010.

In case you missed it, check out the column by my colleague William Pesek Jr. on the spat between Google and China. He argues a big beneficiary could be India. Pesek writes, “China should be concerned about the most influential Internet tool bypassing its $4.3 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people — and the specter of other Silicon Valley giants following suit. Executives at multinational companies who dragged their feet on diversifying investments away from China may now expedite the process.” As for India, the country “has a track record of innovation and a stable of internationally competitive companies that China doesn’t. India also has far superior laws on intellectual property and corporate governance. And China’s willingness to blow off Google plays to India’s relative advantage in these areas.” India’s billionaires, he adds, “must be rubbing their hands together in glee as China’s leaders make an expensive miscalculation.” Read the whole thing here.

The Sino-Kazak Pipeline has piped more than 20 million tons of crude oil from Kazakhstan to China since it became operational in 2006, according to the regional government of Xinjiang.

Last year, the pipeline carried 7.73 million tons of crude oil into China, up 26 percent year-on-year, the inspection and quarantine bureau in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region said in a press release Monday.

The volume makes up about 4 percent of the country's crude imports, which is estimated at around 204 million tons last year.

The Sino-Kazak pipeline runs 2,798 km from Atasu in Kazakhstan to the country's largest oil refinery plant in Dushanzi, in Xinjiang, via the Alataw Pass.