A famous waterfall in China has attracted even more attention than usual – after a video revealed that the majestic falls can be artificially fed by a water pipe.
The Yuntai Waterfall is located in the Yuntai Mountain Park, a major tourist attraction in the north-central Henan province of China. The park has an AAAAA rating – the highest awarded to a tourist attraction by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
But the source of the water, described by the park’s website as “like the Milky Way flying down,” has come under scrutiny. A video posted to Chinese social media this week appears to show a pipe supplying water to the 314-metre-high falls – suggesting their source may not be as natural as visitors were led to believe.
Yuntai Mountain Park management responded to the video, explaining how changes in the dry season necessitated the extra boost to the falls.
“(The waterfall) cannot guarantee that it will meet the public in its most beautiful appearance due to seasonal changes,” they said, adding that the waterfall “underwent a small improvement during the dry season.”
The park’s management also expressed gratitude for the attention and promised that the waterfall would greet guests this summer in its “most perfect and most natural form.”
While the video shocked many people in China, others on social media applauded the park’s response.
“The source of a waterfall is not what people came to see anyway, I don’t think it counts as lying to the public,” said one Weibo user.
“You are there to see a peacock showing off its tail, not to focus on the peacock’s butt,” said another.
Yuntai is not the first waterfall in China to need some extra help. The country’s monsoon climate makes it a challenge to keep water flowing during dry seasons, when less rain falls.
Huangguoshu Waterfall, located in China’s southwestern Guizhou province, also suffered from the dry season. In 2004, a dam was built to ensure that the water would continue to flow.
At the time, the province applauded the dam, saying it would “put an end to the drying up of the history of Huangguoshu Waterfall.”
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