Ah, no, that’s not it!
Chinese parks officials have acknowledged that they have made “minor improvements” to the country’s tallest waterfall after a video posted by a hiker revealed that the breathtaking 1,000-foot-tall waterfall actually flows from a large pipe secretly embedded in the rock face.
“After a long journey to the source of Yuntai Falls, only to find a pipe,” a user using the alias “Farisvov” sarcastically captioned the video, which has been viewed tens of millions of times on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Douyin.
“I never expected to see you all like this,” an employee at Yuntai Mountain Geopark, who takes on the persona of a waterfall, posted on social media after being exposed.
“Please be aware that due to the seasonal nature of the landscape I cannot guarantee that it will look its most beautiful every time you come to see me,” the post continued, acknowledging that the alterations were made to deceive the UNESCO Global Geopark’s millions of tourists and visitors each year.
The discovery sparked debate on Chinese social media, with one Weibo user in support of the improvements writing, “People will be disappointed if there’s nothing to see after all,” according to the BBC.
Others accused the park of “not respecting the natural order and not respecting tourists” and questioned whether it should even maintain its status as China’s No. 1 waterfall, which China promotes as the country’s tallest continuous waterfall.
China has similarly altered other waterfalls popular with tourists at least once, including the Huangguoshu Waterfall, which has been artificially inflated since 2006 by diverting water from a nearby dam.
