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Tourists wreak havoc on beautiful azalea trees in bloom
It's spring and the Chinese countryside is in full bloom! But you know what that means...
Over the weekend, hundreds of tourists flocked to one stunning field in Sichuan's Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture to snap photos with the beautiful alpine azalea flowers located there and perhaps also leave with a souvenir or two.
Photos of unruly tourists breaking off branches and even uprooting entire trees have gone viral on Chinese social media igniting outrage over their wanton destruction of Mother Nature.
One photo even shows how tourists had broken off branches for use in a barbeque.
Meanwhile, local authorities have announced an emergency investigation into how best to protect the environment, cautioning tourists against doing further damage and explaining that anyway it's useless to steal away the trees -- since they can only survive in especially high altitudes.