By XU Shiqi

The Longcaogou ravine sits in the mountains of Pengzhou, 60 kilometers north of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. It is not a tourist area with facilities but in recent years, it has become a popular camping destination on social media platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

The photos of happy campers breaking down fences and “sneaking in” were joined last week by footage of a sudden mountain torrent rushing down the ravine, taking seven lives and leaving eight injured. After the incident, all posts about Longcaogou on Douyin and Xiaohongshu were deleted without comment by either of the two platforms, though it is still possible to find videos and posts tagged with “unexplored scenic sites.”

After floods in the summer of 2012 and 2013, the local government put fences along the riverbank and set up warning signs, but tourists regularly break the fences and post their exploits online. Villagers nearby said they have to fix the fence every year.

Camping and paddle boarding became popular, but not all places with creeks and woods are perfect destinations for fun sports. Longcaogou is definitely not one. On August 13, before the flood, the Pengzhou government issued a warning online and officials went to the site, asking people to leave, but no one listened.

XIA Hailong, a lawyer from Shexcellence Law Firm said the local government has the obligation to warn tourists of dangers, which they did in this case as they put up fences and signs. As for the social media platforms, they are not responsible of stopping people from going to dangerous places, though they could have done better to censor the information.  

Both Xiaohongshu and Douyin said in their rules that users should not post content “violating the law” or “unethical.” 

“Those videos didn’t violate any regulation,” Xia said. “Even if they went there after watching the videos, people must accept the consequences of decisions they make.”