(NewsNation) — China’s stunning Yuntai Mountain Waterfall is an attraction that had seven million visitors last year. But it turns out that the thousand-foot waterfall, China’s tallest, is not completely natural.
A hiker has posted a video taken from the top of the falls clearly showing a pipe feeding the stream.
“I went through all the hardship to the source of Yuntai Waterfall only to see a pipe,” the poster using the alias “Farisvov” sarcastically posted on two Chinese social media sites.
A staff member of the waterfall’s website says that natural water freely flows over the cut formed over billions of years. But, during the dry season, there’s not so much flow.
“The pipes are just auxiliary water diversion equipment built at the waterfall’s source to ensure its attractiveness during the dry season,” the staffer told a news site in Henan province in central China.
“Many tourists still come from afar at this time of year, so we do this to enhance their experience,” the staffer added.
Reaction on Chinese social media has been mixed. One poster on the Weibo site agreed with the enhancement, saying “People would be disappointed if they end up seeing nothing there.”
Others say the park is not respecting both nature and tourists and suggest that Yuntai Mountain should relinquish its status as the tallest uninterrupted falls in China.