Hiker finds secret WATERPIPE supplying China’s tallest waterfall – forcing officials to apologise for misleading tourists
Chinese officials have been forced to apologize after a hiker discovered a secret water pipe supplying water to China’s highest waterfall.
The video, posted on TikTok’s sister app Douyin on Sunday, showed a large water pipe embedded at the top of Yuntai Mountain Waterfall, touted as China’s highest continuous waterfall.
Millions of tourists visit the 300-meter-high waterfall every year, attracted by the ancient geological formations that are more than a billion years old.
Officials at Yuntai Mountain Geopark, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, made a bizarre post on social media, apologizing for the extra pipe by speaking as the waterfall itself.
‘I didn’t expect to meet everyone like this. As a seasonal backdrop, I cannot guarantee that I will be in my best shape every time you come to visit me,” the post read.
The video, posted on TikTok’s sister app Douyin on Sunday, (pictured) showed a large water pipe embedded at the top of Yuntai Mountain Waterfall.
Millions of tourists visit the 300-meter-high waterfall every year
‘I only made a small improvement during the dry season so that I would look my best when I met my friends.’
Park officials also told local media that the water they used in the pipe was spring water, adding that this would not damage the waterfall itself.
But Chinese social media users were still outraged by the decision.
“It disrespects the natural order and disrespects the tourists,” one Weibo user wrote.
“How else can it be called the number 1 waterfall,” said another user on Douyin.
The famous Huangguoshu Waterfall (pictured) in southwestern Guizhou province is supported by water diverted from a nearby dam
Officials boasted that their decision ‘ended the drying up of the history of Huangguoshu Waterfall’
China has a reputation for using artificial measures to improve famous waterfalls.
The famous Huangguoshu Waterfall in southwestern Guizhou province has been helped by water diverted from a nearby dam built in 2004 to maintain a consistent flow during China’s dry season.
The province praised the construction of the dam at the time.
Officials boasted that their decision “ended the drying up of the history of Huangguoshu Waterfall.”