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.
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.