BY JOHN CHAPPELL

Staff Writer

Students from Moore County are exploring one of "the last wild places" as part of a Hunan Province-sponsored summer camp in China.

The Zhangjiajie Mountains will look familiar to moviegoers, as they were the model for the floating mountains of "Avatar."

"Things are going great," said David Cummings in an e-mail report on their first week. "The group as a whole is getting along well and we really are having a life-changing experience. We're staying at the Jin Hua Hotel in Zhangjiajie in the Hunan Province."

They arrived in Beijing on June 21 and flew on to Hunan Province - a "sister state" to North Carolina, where a number of cities have signed similar agreements with Pinehurst and Robbins.

Guidong and Moore counties are also linked, all as a result of the discovery in 2005 that a downed World War II Flying Tiger fighter pilot was 2nd Lt. Robert Hoyle Upchurc, from High Falls.

The residents of Guidong had honored him as their unknown hero for more than 60 years. Morgan Seawell, of High Falls, thought they would be going to Guidong on this trip. So did Cummings, but apparently that was not to be.

"I think we both kind of thought the same thing but were mistaken," he said. "When we arrived at the airport in Zhangjiajie, we were greeted by two smiling girls holding a sign that read 'North Carolina of America.' These two would be our interns for our visit and help us with translating. Their names are May and Lindsey. May has visited America before and will also be attending MIT in the next year. We stepped onto the tour bus and met the vice principal, Mr. Yao, and the English teacher, Mr. Fish, who will be helping lead the summer camp."

The group has been taking meals everywhere in the small city of Zhangjiajie. Lunch is usually at Wulingyan No. 1 Middle School, where they study. Other times, they hike to a restaurant in the mountains or to a farm house deep into the Zhangjiajie great valley.

"If we're lucky, the school officials will take us to a very nice restaurant for dinner where we all sit at a circular table and eat and toast to our futures," Cummings said. "The city is very small and seems to be agriculture based. It's built up in a valley surrounded by mountains, and a river runs through the middle."

The visitors from the West see Zhangjiajie as still a very poor area, where locals wash their clothes in the river, and many buildings are very old and falling in - all in a spectacular mountain setting.

"The beauty of the surrounding mountains overpowers all of it," Cummings said. "Apparently these mountains were the inspiration for Avatar's setting, and they were filmed for the movie. Also, Zhangjiajie does not have many American visitors, so we all feel like celebrities. The locals take pictures and stare and attempt any English that they may know."

After their first night, the students from North Carolina ate breakfast at the hotel and had their first experience with what meals in the fabled mountains of Hunan would be like. Then they piled onto their tour bus for Wulingyan school and their first classes.

"The children loved watching us walk into the school," Cummings said. "They all pointed from their classrooms and attempted to say 'hello' to us. We walked to the classroom that we would be using for the rest of the trip."

School began with an opening ceremony, introductions all around and welcoming speeches from school officials offering hopes that their American visitors would enjoy the experience. Cummings and others responded with speeches of their own, and - in keeping with ancient Chinese custom - they exchanged gifts.

"We thanked them and let them know we were excited that we were helping bridge a relationship between America and China," Cummings said. "We also gave them American gifts to show our appreciation. After we ate lunch at the school, we gathered back into the classroom where we learned a Chinese song."- With school officials, they learned how to toast in Chinese: "Gambei!"

"We entered into a large room with a large round table and ate," he said. "They toasted us to our presence and hoped we would enjoy the camp. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, where we went to a massive theater building where a program of the Zhangjiajie culture was about to be performed. The building was really amazing and so was the show. Haven't seen Cirque du Soleil, but I can guarantee that this show would have it beat."

On June 24, they headed for the strangely shaped Zhangjiajie Mountains, taking a cable car to reach the top.

"These narrow mountains were breathtaking," Cummings said. "They sprouted up from the ground and rose high into the sky We spent the whole day climbing around the mountains and stepping out onto each scenic viewpoint. There were many sites we visited. They ranged from a general's grave, a Buddhist temple, to a site where people bought locks that they would lock onto the fence - it supposedly would grant your wish. We had dinner at the hotel later that night with Mr. Fish and Mr. Yao."

The following day, they headed back to the mountains, this time following the river instead of climbing the peaks.

"We followed a path along the river until it came to a huge opening where there was a garden where people could sit," Cummings said. "There was a path that some students took that led up to another part of the mountain also. We ate lunch near there on a deck of a nice restaurant."

Contact John Chappell by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.