A hiker posted a video showing the water flow of the fall was coming from a pipe built into the rock face.

A controversy over a waterfall has cascaded into a social media storm in China, even prompting an explanation from the water body itself.

A hiker posted a video that showed the flow of water from Yuntai Mountain Waterfall - billed as China’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall - was coming from a pipe built high into the rock face.

The clip has been liked more than 70,000 times since it was first posted on Monday. Operators of the Yuntai tourism park said that they made the “small enhancement” during the dry season so visitors would feel that their trip had been worthwhile.

“The one about how I went through all the hardship to the source of Yuntai Waterfall only to see a pipe,” the caption of the video posted by user “Farisvov” reads.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    316·
    4 months ago

    I went to Niagara Falls last year and I was disappointed to find out that they could control the flow or even stop the flow of water going down the falls and sometimes did so in winter. But they also didn’t make a secret of it.

      • Adalast@lemmy.worldEnglish
        321·
        4 months ago

        Only if you ignore WHY it has the ability to do that. The reason is the hydroelectric power plant, or more specifically the construction of the plant, required that they divert the falls for a couple years a LONG time ago. They have maintained the capacity to divert the flow of the river to ensure that they are able to perform maintenance on the plant and the various national park infrastructures around the falls. The seasonal diversions are usually to perform said maintenance as well as to protect parts of the power plant from freezing. It is actually one of the great engineering marvals of the early 20th century.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        133·
        4 months ago

        It is, but they’re still really beautiful. The area is a big tourist trap, but the falls themselves are worth it.

        • Shyfer@ttrpg.networkEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          I’d definitely still love to see it one day. And now at least that won’t catch me off guard lol.

        • Shyfer@ttrpg.networkEnglish
          4·
          4 months ago

          It’s hard to describe why, but you visit that kind of place to see the wonders of nature and all that. Still, I’ll keep in mind that other person’s comment about the great feat of engineering it required.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Because you think you’re seeing a purely natural wonder but it turns out to be at least somewhat orchestrated.

        It doesn’t take away the beauty of what you’re looking at, but it does take away some of the feeling behind that beauty if that makes sense.

        • The_Biggest_Cum@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
          3·
          4 months ago

          Because you think you’re seeing a purely natural wonder but it turns out to be at least somewhat orchestrated.

          I mean, it is still a natural wonder, same as it was.

          All we did was make it so we can move the water to one side so we can take a look / work on maintaining the natural wonder, it’s not like we dug out the channels and created those 3 waterfalls

          The beauty of something shouldn’t be affected at all by the insanely hardcore engineering it takes to maintain said beauty. If it does for you I’d recommend therapy cuz literally every natural wonder will be ruined for you if that’s the case cuz they all get maintained