PHOTOS: China's 'Yin-Yang River' represents duality between pollution and... non-pollution

Netizens have been marveling this week at a mind-boggling river in Zhejiang dubbed the “Yin-Yang River." Parted in two by a dyke down the center, one side of the river is clear and healthy-looking while the other is a sickly, brownish-green — the color of a dead, stagnant pool.

The latter is a section of the Grand Canal, the ancient waterway that connected Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north and still remains the world’s longest artificial waterway. On the other side, the clear waters belong Shaoxing’s Eastern Lake.

Although the photographer and the many web users sharing the pictures maintain that the stark contrast is the result of pollution, Shaoxing officials have claimed that the canal’s sallow hue is really the result of silt sitting at the bottom of the canal, dredged up by waterborne traffic that continues to traverse the waterway after so many centuries.

With even state media admitting this year that over half of the country’s groundwater is polluted, however, this will come as little comfort so those concerned about mounting pollution levels.