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.
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.
It feels kinda gross to me. Like painting mountains white to simulate glaciers at Glacier National Park for people that flew on super carbon intensive planes to take pictures of the painted mountains. The glaciers all melted out due to climate change.
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.
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.
I work near Yosemite, we don’t need one extra body there in the summer at all.
Well at least all the international visitors wouldn’t be disappointed with the dry cliffs.
Lol this guy bought it.
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.
If it is dry due to climate change I don’t see how there is an eco-system built around the drought worth preserving.
Most likely the dry season is naturally occurring, but the length and severity are affected by climate change.
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.
I tend to agree with you, nature should be experienced as-is, imo. I just don’t think this is that terrible.
Everything in china is fake part 3000
Honestly that kind of phrase sounds like a remnant of the old, prejudice-clad world. Why continue with this ?
Okay
Everything in china is fake except for the Uyghur genocide part 3001
Is that supoosed to be a joke ?
Yeah they just have some credit. There’s also Taiwan that’s real, they care about that a lot.
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.
I had no idea. That is kinda disappointing lol
Why?
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.
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.
It is, but they’re still really beautiful. The area is a big tourist trap, but the falls themselves are worth it.
I’d definitely still love to see it one day. And now at least that won’t catch me off guard lol.
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.
Thanks for the context - that’s fascinating.
Ya thanks for the interesting POV. I’ll try to look at it from that angle when I finally make it out over there.
They turned it off once to clear rubble underneath it so it looked more spectacular.
I don’t get why would that be disappointing?
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.
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
Dude, you asked me why and I told you why. I’m sorry you don’t care for why I was mildly disappointed but that was still I was mildly disappointed.
Suggesting I need therapy for that is just rude and unnecessary.
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)
If you can turn off the falls whenever you want, I’d call that orchestrated.
I mean, they put lights on with colours at night… And there is a whole boulevard built around them so you can see them better
Would you call that orchestrated?
Yes?
Ok, I think I get your point now!
Cheers!
I didn’t think I could hate China more. /s
Thanks BBC
This was not on my bingo card.
Seems like that one youtube channel won the recent algorithm lottery.
Fake nature is the pinnacle of capitalism. Yes I include China
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.
Literally the government doing it. How is that capitalism?
Same people.
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.
Why use brain when can ask?
“What does error code XYZ mean on my 40 year old limited run old-tech device from a company that stopped existing 39 years ago and never made a manual”
Vs
“Is Earth round”
Let’s try it with this post
Does the govt hold a monopoly on violence? Then its not capitalism
The government does not hold a monopoly on violence. You can just start punching people and they can just start punching you back.
It’s illegal to punch someone unprovoked, unless you are a cop; there is no legal repercussions for law enforcement to hit you in your sexy face. So no, the monopoly still remains with the government.
It’s illegal to punch someone unprovoked, unless you are a cop
It’s illegal when a cop does it, too. Although enforcement is scattershot at best. Spousal abuse statistics confirm as much.
there is no legal repercussions for law enforcement to hit you in your sexy face
Sizeable civil legal settlements suggest otherwise.
CCP is just a business. The richest by design of course
Dude Tencent owns CCP now… Oh not that CCP…
Literally
There are other adverbs.
But it’s being used correctly for a change!
He literally doesn’t know them
It’s a figurative misunderstanding
Capitalism is when bad things happen.
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.
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?
State Capitalism
a political system in which the state has control of production and the use of capital.
So communism by another name?
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.
If every time comminism is tried, it turns into one specific bad thing, then wouldnt that mean that communism is inherently flawed?
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.
Did you really just a “not true communism”?
I swear tankies are a meme.
Maybe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t think so, no. If anything it shows it’s difficult to achieve.
If every time someone is born, they die, then wouldn’t that mean that life is inherently worthless?
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
Russia and China are plenty big.
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.
No.
No, it’s pretty distinct from communism, which is why it’s not called that
Yes I include China
Are you a Maoist, then?
China is really refining capitalism into its own new monster.
Idk who’s capitalism monster scares me the most now.
who’s capitalism monster
Indeed: who is capitalism monster, really?
Initially I thought you meant ‘whose’, but this is funnier.
There’s a whole series on YouTube about how China fakes everything.
Can I get a link? Sounds like a solid watch while im playing Noita, and failing miserably.
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https://piped.video/PA78KBYNEbw
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Thanks dude, duddette, or eldritch abomination from R’lyeh.
Why you have to assume I’m from R’lyeh? There are other impossible cities, nestled in the bosom of roiling, black seas and characterized by writhing, non-euclidean angles and shapes that tessellate into the vast, unknowable distance
it’s not just china. its everywhere in east and southeast asia. the chinese tourists wouldn’t even care that the waterfall is fake. they get off the bus and take selfies with it, and then get back on the bus. they have no interest in anything else.
But the TOURISM!
People will really jump on any random thing to bash China. I’ll give kudos to British state media that this constant deluge of insignificant nonsense makes it really hard to have any discussion about China that’s based on like, broad trends in history or economics.
Parks do water management. At Niagra Falls, for example, much of the water is used for power generation at night, but during the day more of it goes over the falls for the benefit of tourists. You’ve probably never heard about it, because it doesn’t matter. At all.
But make it about another tribe, about the outgroup, and suddenly it’s the most important thing in the world and proves everything we always suspected and blah blah blah. Go volunteer at your local park.
Ok Tankie!
Being a tankie is when you don’t care about water management at a park on the opposite side of the world, even though your state hates their state.
As opposed to what you’re doing which is just apologizing for a corrupt government?
Contrary to popular belief, there’s actually nothing wrong with calling out bad arguments and illegitimate or irrelevant criticism of anything or anyone, regardless of what you think about the thing or person. I’ll apologize for whoever I please, in other words.
Last I checked, Buffalo wasn’t pumping water up the falls just to make it roll down through the turbines, but if you have legit sources showing otherwise I’d be most happy to see them comrade
They do control the amount of water that flows down the falls. I was there last year. They also come right out and say so.
Bit of a difference between a weir/hydroelectric dam and a pump that would take all the water from the turbines and send it right back up to the canucks, using the turbine energy.
Then again, maybe it would spur a new round of waterfall barrel daredevils if they knew their keys would just be churned up top like a bowling ball at a “natural wonder”
Where did I claim they were? I believe what I said is “Parks do water management.” And beauty and tourism are concerns that they take into account. This is a non-story.
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Speak for yourself, as far as I’m concerned China has lost all credibility with this story. Faking a waterfall ? That’s grounds for economic sanctions
Xi Jinping reading about this story like
I expect chairman Xi’s resignation letter on my desk by 8
I mean, they already did that.
Are you a Maoist, then?
No, China’s current economy is not communist. Nothing to do with Mao, or what I think about communism personally.
I guess I’m just confused then. When China enacted economic reforms in the 80’s, there were people who opposed them and felt that these reforms entailed a right-wing deviation from communism. Those people were/are known as Maoist hardliners. You can see where I thought you might be one.
If you’re not that, then does that mean you do approve of those economic reforms? Perhaps I misunderstood, when you said China abandoned communism, did you mean it as a good thing, and you support China’s direction from a pro-capitalist standpoint?
If that’s not it, I give up. I’m afraid I’m at a loss what your ideology is or what you think about Chinese history or the country’s economic reforms. If you could explain it to me, I’d be quite grateful, I see a lot of people around here who appear to me to be Maoists, but when I ask if they are, they don’t answer or elaborate. It’s very confusing to me.
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You should comment less and lurk moar and you’ll pick up the vibe.
Or just keep trying to corner people and wonder why they don’t want to engage with you.
The video was posted on Weibo by a hiker, which suggests the hiker is Chinese. So blame the Chinese for making this known since they then viewed and shared it thousands of times.
You say “thousands” as if that’s a lot. If some Chinese people want to talk about a park’s water management, I don’t mind. But when Westerners take some random trivial thing like this and use it to fuel a narrative that “China is a country full of lies,” or whatever, that’s an entirely different animal. This is a local issue, not an excuse for chauvanists to be chauvanist.
Yes, I do call 70,000 shares a lot. That’s shares, not views. I’m not sure why you don’t.
And it’s still the Chinese people making a big deal about this.
Really? Because what I’m seeing is an article from the British Broadcasting Channel and a thread full of people using this story to make sweeping generalizations about China, in English. I suppose it’s possible, but I gotta say I find it a little hard to believe that this thread is full of Chinese nationals, as you’re claiming.
this thread is full of Chinese nationals, as you’re claiming.
Where was that claimed?
Right here?
And it’s still the Chinese people making a big deal about this.
I’m talking about what people in this thread are saying, and in response they said it’s Chinese people making a big deal about it, so naturally that would imply that this thread is full of primarily Chinese people.
They said it’s Chinese people IN CHINA making a big deal about it, which is what this article is about.
So Chinese!
Someone’s gonna get jailed for revealing state secrets and embarrassing the party.
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.
With a carefully-crafted explanation like that, it almost sounds like a positive.
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.
Keeping the waterfall active would be conservation. I’m sure there would be an ecosystem around it.
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
I’m not wise on chinese climate, but there’s probably a dry season regardless of climate change
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?
Ranked 20th, but out of how many countries?
Well I pulled the full source: the 2021 Net Zero Readiness Report from KPMG.
KPMG evaluated 32 countries. Out of which China ranked 20th. Not terrible, but also not all that impressive with that context.
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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.
Not surprising, everything is fake in China. Have even seen China using green paint on plants and mountains…
ehmmm, every city in every country I have heard of does something like this when an international event will take place.
Not saying the Chinese may not over do it… but this is common practice in the Western World as well
Yep we all paint our dogs to look like pandas over here
Did you actually watch the videos?
They were spraying the trees green because they were dead. Elsewhere they might power wash ground, and maybe replace broken windows in abandoned buildings so they look new, possibly do some weeding, but they’re not painting trees because the trees are not dead. If the trees are dead you’ve got a serious issue.
Brazil painted over their slum neighborhoods… Venezuela used to hang flower pots on every lamp post… Canada labeled a bunch of buildings as “green sustainable energy”… etc
Again, I am not saying China is no overdoing it… but the pearl clutching tone of the video seemed silly to me
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Ha! Actually fake and gay!
Waterfalls cause rainbows.
Literally this
Untrue and joyous
Joious
You were expecting a JOJO reference, but it was me, DIO!
