H2Oh-no-they didn’t!
Chinese park officials announced the addition of a “minor enhancement” to the country’s tallest waterfall after a hiker’s viral video revealed that the stunning 1,000-foot waterfall is actually being fed by a large pipe surreptitiously installed in its rocky surface.
“The story about how I went through all the hardships to the source of Yuntai Waterfall just to see a pipe,” the poster using the pseudonym “Farisvov” sarcastically commented on the video, which has garnered tens of millions of views on Chinese social media network Weibo. And Duane.
“I didn’t expect to meet everyone like this,” officials from Yuntai Mountain Geopark — which adopts a waterfall persona — posted on social media after they were unveiled.
“As a seasonal spectacle, I cannot guarantee that I will be at my most beautiful every time you come to see me,” the post continued, admitting that the edits were made to deceive the millions of tourists and annual visitors to the UNESCO Global Geopark.
The discovery sparked controversy on Chinese social media, with one Weibo user in favor of the improvements writing, “People will be disappointed if they don’t see something there in the end.” According to the BBC .
Others accused the park of “disrespecting the natural order and being disrespectful to tourists” — and even questioned whether it should retain its status as the country’s No. 1 waterfall, which China promotes as the country’s tallest continuous waterfall.
China has at least once modified other waterfalls popular with tourists, including Huangguoshu Waterfall, which has been artificially enhanced with water diverted from a nearby dam since 2006.
