Chinese tourist village slammed for using fake snow to draw in visitors
19 February 2025, 15:09
A tourist village in China has been accused of using cotton wool and soapy water to create fake snow.
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Due to unexpected warmer weather, a tourist village in Sichuan, China, used fake snow to appease its visitors.
The village of Chengdu is known for its beautiful snow, but this January was unseasonably warm.
Locals were forced to try and replicate the snowy rooftops with cotton wool and soapy water.
Photos emerged online of the village with large cotton sheets on the ground and on top of houses, seemingly stapled on, sparking outrage on social media.
China’s tourism industry is really outdoing itself with its creativity!
— Ava Olivia (@AvaOlivia27) February 18, 2025
Welcome to ‘Snow Village’ in Chengdu- where snow is made of cotton balls, the ground is white sand, and the fake waterfalls flow… with imagination.1/2 @MM81792127@GundamNorthrop@SolomonYue pic.twitter.com/2fZr2ORrLl
One social media user quipped: "A snow village without snow."
The Chengdu Snow Village project were forced to apologise.
They said, in a statement on state app Wechat: "In order to create a 'snowy' atmosphere the tourist village purchased cotton for the snow...but it did not achieve the expected effect, leaving a very bad impression on tourists who came to visit."
It's believed that the tourist area has been cleared of the fake snow.
The village attracts visitors every Lunar New Year, a festival that celebrates the first new moon of the Lunar calendar.
China experienced its hottest year on record in 2024, the country's meteorological service said.
Temperatures were, on average, 1.03 degrees celsius warmer than usual.
