The Milky Way is falling

Waterfall is a magic gift that God gave us. And everyone wants to know more about it. Rocksies want to research into its cause of formation., visiters want to see its glory, writers want to blaze their inspiration by it and electric power workers want to achieve more energy by using it. Then, don’t you want to discern its elegant demeanour?

If you want, then go with me. Here we have prepared you four special waterfalls.

The giant Huangguoshu Waterfall——the largest waterfall of China

The giant Huangguoshu Waterfall measures 77.8 meters high and 101.0 meters wide. It is the largest in China and one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

As early as over 300 years ago, the famous Chinese geologist and traveler Xu Xiake recorded, “the foams rise from the rocks like a mist. The waterfall is with such a momentum that even the couplet ‘a screen of pearl released from hooks/or silk that hangs on faraway peaks’ cannot describe to the full its majesty.” The roaring river dashes down from the over-70-meter-high cliff into the Xiniu Pond, creating a noise as if a thousand people were beating drums or tens of thousands of horses were galloping. The thundering noise reaches as far as several kilometers away and strikes the tourists’ hearts.

Huangguoshu Waterfall has big, medium, and small water volumes in different time of the year. For 9 or 10 months in a year the waterfall has an average medium water volume at 20 cubic meters per second. The sight varies in accordance with the water volume. When there is a big water volume at 1500 cubic meters per second, the silver waves dash to the sky with such a great momentum that the spray may splatter up as high as over 100 meters and envelope the Huangguoshu street market like a mist. Even in sunny days, tourists at the market have to walk under umbrellas, and hence the praise “silver rain sprinkling over the golden (sunlit) street”. The rising water beads are like billions of sparkling stars that drift along the wind and waft dazzlingly from above the sky. When there is a medium water volume, the waterfall is divided into four branches with different shapes and styles. The leftmost one is the smallest but spreads wide, featuring elegance; the second from the left is the biggest and measures the same width from up down, featuring grandness; the third from the left is next to the former in water volume and is wide in the upper part and narrow in the lower, featuring majesty; the rightmost ranks the third in water volume and is narrow in the upper part and wide in the lower, featuring natural and unrestrained grace. In fact, the waterfall is at its best with a medium water volume. At that time, its contour is clear and the snow-white water, together with the dark green pond, the blue sky, and the rainbow, forms a perfect picture. When there is a small water volume, the four branches spread on the entire surface of the cliff and loses none of its width and majesty. Huangugoshu Waterfall is world-famous for its majesty. However, compared with the other famous waterfalls in the world, it has another appeal, i.e. the water curtain cave in the middle of the great waterfall.

The three cascade waterfall in Lu Mountain——the most poetic waterfall in China

The poet Li Bai wrote a poetry named “Overlook at Lushan Waterfall” like this:

　　Over the burner mist rises in the sunshine,

　　On the hillside afar, a fall seems to lie.

　　The 3000-foot-long fall is straight to fly,

　　Is the Milky Way falling from the sky?

Everyone who come there will have a special feeling, and have an actuation to write something. The three cascade waterfall is originating in Dayue Mountain, the spring angles around the backside of Five-Old-Men Peak and pours into Nine Tier Gully, crashing twice upon rocks, and then converges into a torrent, and drops once again. Driven by the gully wind, the tiny drops dance in the misty air, sparkling in the sunlight and falling like countless dazzling pearls.

The Hukou Waterfall——China’s mother waterfall

The Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River is the only Yellow Waterfall on earth. The river narrows and cascades dramatically into a stone pond more than 30 meters below, creating the famous Hukou Waterfalls. The gentle water turbulent and gains speed as it rushed forward till it finally cascades over the waterfall, forming an illusion of water being poured from a kettle, hence its name "Hukou or Kettle spout". Like thousands of tumbling dragons or enraged animals that have just been set free, the yellow water plunged down, the pounding against the stones echoes like thunder. The most dramatic changes occur during deep winter and early spring when the river surface becomes frozen. Sometimes, the subsidiary falls freeze into icicles, creating images of crouching beast on top of the cliffs.