Footage of Chinese skyscraper home to the world's biggest man-made waterfall has everyone saying the same thing
We've seen a lot of things in our time, but a waterfall gushing down the side of a skyscraper? Now that's definitely something new.
The Liebian International Building in Guiyang, China, is some 121 meters tall, with an enormous water feature flowing 108 meters to the ground.
It's one of the largest artificial waterfalls in the world - and it might be the biggest non-tiered man-made waterfall anywhere.
The building is otherwise fairly normal to look at, but the reasoning behind the water feature is quite nice. Ludi Industry Group director Cheng Xiamao told The i: "Guiyang is a city of mountains, and with many trees, just like a forest. He [the architect] wanted to create a feeling of water and greenery, even when you are surrounded by skyscrapers."
You can imagine how the mist of a massive waterfall could indeed mimic that feeling of being in a rainforest, although there's a slight lack of greenery around the building's footprint to back that up.
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Still, the amazing water feature has gone viral a few times in recent years, including a post skyrocketing up the Reddit rankings in the last day or so.
It shows a video of the water feature in action from a few angles, and has provoked a whole bunch of discussion about it in the comments underneath.
One really high-ranking comment, with some 2,000-plus upvotes of its own, comprises someone doing the sums on just how much water the feature would use:
"185kW x 4 = 740kW
360ft = 110m
110m x 9.81 J/kg = 1080 J/kg
740,000 W / 1080 J/kg = 685 kg/a
685 liters of water per second."
That's a huge amount of water, if it's accurate, and perhaps explains why the waterfall isn't reportedly on all the time, since it's really expensive to operate.
This mathematical comment is still more generous than most, though, since it sticks to just a calculation - many people in the thread are being more sarcastic, with the top comment having attracted nearly 10,000 upvotes; it reads: "They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should."
This classic quote from Jurassic Park sums up the fact that people think the waterfall, while gobsmacking, is basically pointless and potentially a waste of money. Another comment agrees, putting it more simply: "Damn that's stupid".