Hollywood fame to national shame: China pulls 51 tonnes of trash from park that inspired 'Avatar'

China has cleared 51 tonnes of trash from a scenic southern region famed for a craggy peak featured in Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar", after videos went viral on social media showing ancient caves used as a rubbish dump.

The caves in a national park in the southern province of Hunan were stacked with stinking garbage up to seven or eight storeys high, leading to a build-up of sewage, the videos on Chinese social media and public broadcaster CCTV showed.

The Zhangjiajie park is a UNESCO heritage site that provided inspiration for the scenery in director James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi film.

As much as 51 tonnes of garbage was removed from the Datiankeng and Yangjiapo caves, some of it dating to between 2010 and 2016, administrative officials in Cili county said on an official Wechat account on Sunday.

Villagers had dumped waste there after the local government banned incineration and before a new waste collection and treatment service was established, they added.

Four officials have been suspended while 12 farms were being investigated for illegal discharge of waste water, they said.

The authorities have set up a whistleblower channel for reports of illegal waste dumping.

The officials in Cili, home to the caves, said the emergence of "prominent" ecological and environmental issues spurred them to take action against the individuals responsible and related companies.