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.

The topic “the origin of Yuntai Waterfall is just some pipes” began trending all over social media.

It received more than 14 million views on Weibo and nearly 10 million views on Douyin - causing such an uproar that local government officials were sent to the park to investigate.

They asked the operators to learn a lesson from the incident and explain the enhancements to tourists ahead of time, according to state broadcaster CCTV.