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.

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      925·
      5 months ago

      China is really refining capitalism into its own new monster.

      Idk who’s capitalism monster scares me the most now.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        291·
        5 months ago

        who’s capitalism monster

        Indeed: who is capitalism monster, really?

        Initially I thought you meant ‘whose’, but this is funnier.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      52·
      5 months ago

      Although- what would you consider fake nature? There is a wetland park that was artificially turned into a wetland after reclaiming farmland for it. But it’s also legitimately a wetland with all the native plants and animals that go with it and it serves the same sort of water filtration purpose of a real wetland.

      So is it fake nature?

      I am in no way a fan of capitalism, but let’s define terms here.

      • Bertuccio@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2911·
        5 months ago

        There is a vast resource of nearly all of humanity’s collective knowledge that you can tap to learn why a govt doing something doesn’t mean it’s not capitalism.

          • Rinox@feddit.itEnglish
            143·
            5 months ago

            Yes in the sense that all communist countries are state capitalism, no in the sense that it betrays the very ideology of communism.

            If you think about it it’s very much the same structure as a big business, with the “boss” at the very top, the party being the shareholders and executives swallowing all the profits and at the bottom are all the workers getting the shaft.

            The main differences with normal capitalism is that the state here has an army, police and a full monopoly, so the party can literally do whatever they want to whoever they want within China. They don’t play by the rules, they write the rules, ie, a capitalist wet dream.

            • Kaboom@reddthat.comEnglish
              38·
              5 months ago

              If every time comminism is tried, it turns into one specific bad thing, then wouldnt that mean that communism is inherently flawed?

              • Hadriscus@lemm.eeEnglish
                3·
                5 months ago

                I don’t think so, no. If anything it shows it’s difficult to achieve.

              • skulblaka@startrek.websiteEnglish
                42·
                5 months ago

                If every time someone is born, they die, then wouldn’t that mean that life is inherently worthless?

              • Bertuccio@lemmy.worldEnglish
                42·
                5 months ago

                Ignoring whatever semantic arguments about socialism and communism, it’s easier to just point out that statement isn’t true.

                Employee-owned businesses are socialist - in the actual definition of socialism where capital is owned by the workers. They work fine, maybe even better than capitalist businesses.

                Fire departments are socialist - in a slightly different definition where a non-capital resource is owned by a community. They definitely work better than the capitalist versions that used to exist.

                The problem with saying anything communist always fails is that they only call it communism when it fails. When it succeeds they just call it something else.

              • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
                32·
                5 months ago

                True Communism has never been tried on a large scale. It’s always authoritarians calling themselves Communist.

                But yes, it is flawed in that humans are too tribal for it to work on a large scale.

                • Kaboom@reddthat.comEnglish
                  36·
                  5 months ago

                  Did you really just a “not true communism”?

                  I swear tankies are a meme.

              • starman2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                21·
                5 months ago

                Not necessarily, it could just mean that the vast majority of the time it would be legitimately implemented, a larger country that doesn’t like communism spends a lot of time and money interfering with it

        • Croquette@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          82·
          5 months ago

          The planet is literally on fire directly caused by capitalism.

          The housing crisis is because houses are seen as an investment vehicle instead of a basic human right.

          The inflation is caused by corporations squeezing the population as much as they can to get every little cent they can.

          Everything capitalism touch withers. There isn’t much new innovation anymore, just mega corpos buying other companies to stop the competition and lock the market.

        • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          What gets me about the mentality is that they blame capitalism for everything they don’t like and somehow imagine that none of those things would exist in a different system - it feels like they’ve never really thought about the reality of any other system.

          Why would people living under true real communism not want a pretty waterfall? Do workers stop wanting a nice day out when their employer is state run?

  • Shard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    928·
    5 months ago

    Someone’s gonna get jailed for revealing state secrets and embarrassing the party.

    • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
      542·
      5 months ago

      According to the article, it’s something China does regularly to waterfalls and they don’t deny it.

      Huangguoshu Waterfall, a famous tourist destination in the southwestern Guizhou province, has been helped by a water diversion project from a nearby dam since 2006 to maintain its flow during the dry season.

        • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
          234·
          5 months ago

          If it’s main value of the waterfall is tourism, and if the water is needed downstream anyway, why not start the water diversion before the waterfall? Ultimately, all China is doing is giving everyone a false sense of security by masking the impact climate change is having on them.

          • dariusj18@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            5 months ago

            Keeping the waterfall active would be conservation. I’m sure there would be an ecosystem around it.

            • freebee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              5 months ago

              True. On the other hand if it’s in a situation where water can be scarce, it might cause a bit more water evapiration to send it down a waterfall instead of a pipe

          • Hadriscus@lemm.eeEnglish
            4·
            5 months ago

            I’m not wise on chinese climate, but there’s probably a dry season regardless of climate change

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1210·
            5 months ago

            Ultimately, all China is doing is giving everyone a false sense of security

            ??? By turning a piece of infrastructure into a piece of scenic beauty ???

            masking the impact climate change

            China is ranked 20th globally in Net Zero emissions readiness and is exceeding its 2050 and 2060 benchmark targets. Its the world leader in nuclear energy construction, building half of all nuclear power plants in construction globally. Its the world leader in mass transit, having laid over 3000 km of new HSR since 2008. And its the world leader in NEV construction, leading the world in the phase out of ICE engines.

            But they put a pipe up to the top of a waterfall in order to keep it running during dry months, so they’re not taking climate change seriously?

  • conditional_soup@lemm.eeEnglish
    6521·
    5 months ago

    This doesn’t seem all that awful to me. The waterfall isn’t fake, it’s just something they do in the dry season so visitors don’t feel like they wasted a trip. It’s not the choice I would make if I were running the park, but it doesn’t seem that bad to me.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      976·
      5 months ago

      If you go check a waterfall in the dry season and expect it to be pouring water like it was monsoon season, you deserve to be disappointed.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.eeEnglish
        337·
        5 months ago

        I tend to agree with you, nature should be experienced as-is, imo. I just don’t think this is that terrible.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      406·
      5 months ago

      It can mislead visitors about the severity of climate change… and it can impact the local ecosystem, if there are organisms around the waterfall that depend on there being a dry season each year.

      • Blóðbók@slrpnk.netEnglish
        61·
        5 months ago

        If it is dry due to climate change I don’t see how there is an eco-system built around the drought worth preserving.

        • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          5 months ago

          Most likely the dry season is naturally occurring, but the length and severity are affected by climate change.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      5 months ago

      When I was I Niagara they did the opposite. They’d divert water into pipes bypassing the falls and “turn down” the falls at night.

    • antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      There’s already a dam at Hetch Hetchy. All they need now is some pumps and pipes to bring more tourists to Yosemite Valley in Summer.

  • 46_and_2@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    5 months ago

    When they wrote this “promted explanation from the water body itself” I thought it was some funny wording for a water agency or sth, not that they’d actually attempt to word their answer as if it’s from the waterfall itself, lol.

    The park later posted on behalf of the waterfall saying, “I didn’t expect to meet everyone this way”. “As a seasonal scenery I can’t guarantee that I will be in my most beautiful form everytime you come to see me,” it adds. “I made a small enhancement during the dry season only so I would look my best to meet my friends.”

    • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
      62·
      5 months ago

      So the waterfall itself installed a pipe? I know it’s trying to be whimsical, but that part makes so sense whatsoever even in that context.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    326·
    5 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
        311·
        5 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·
        5 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·
          5 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·
          5 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.

          • Jojo, Lady of the West@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            5 months ago

            Not even that it took a lot of work to make diversion possible, but also that what you’re seeing is, if anything, a slightly reduced version of the original, natural falls. The same river is going over the same spot it did originally, there is just infrastructure now that allows it to go elsewhere when the hydro dam that is also on the river needs maintenance.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        3·
        5 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.

        • exanime@lemmy.todayEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          How is it orchestrated? What you see is what nature did. The water can be controlled somewhat because of engineering but it doesn’t change the features of the fall as nature made it

          I’m not arguing against you, just not getting your perspective (which I’m just trying to understand)

    • Hadriscus@lemm.eeEnglish
      76·
      5 months ago

      Honestly that kind of phrase sounds like a remnant of the old, prejudice-clad world. Why continue with this ?

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      82·
      5 months ago

      I’m not saying china doesn’t have problems, but it’s this kind of attitude that sends us down the path of us vs them that I think is toxic and leads to nationalism.

      I have no issue with people criticising things in other countries, just not be absolute about it.

      There most certainly are many not fake things in China that are great. Friendly people, wonderful food, natural wonders (this and perhaps some others excepted, but still), beautiful villages etc.

      Just as there are bad things too, historical and contemporary.

      Only a sith deals in absolutes.

      “Oh this is whack, the park authority/ Chinese government faking a waterfall? That’s pretty shit.” 👍 An opinion I think many could agree with and is a valid criticism.

      “Everything in China is fake” 👎 No it isn’t.

      • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        31·
        5 months ago

        Unfortunately lemmy is by and large pretty racist, and totally unable to handle any form of nuance. I don’t really know why people who consider themselves heroicly leftwing are like this but I think it’s because complexity is uncomfortable compared to just deciding you know it all and biewing the world as divided into teams of good vs evil.

  • lemmytellyousomething@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    16·
    5 months ago

    Now that we know how to build a water fall from scratch, it’s just a matter of time until the world record of the highest water fall will be in Saudi Arabia or Quatar…

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
      61·
      5 months ago

      “The world’s largest waterfall is fed by the world’s second-biggest pump. The world’s biggest pump is used for the air conditioning that keeps the surrounding forest at a pleasant 20°C cooler than natural temperatures.”

  • Adderbox76@lemmy.caEnglish
    152·
    5 months ago

    Farisov who? We, the chinese government, have never heard of, not has there every been a user by the name of Farisov… Please go on about your day.