A Chinese tourist plunged into a deep gorge at the world-famous Victoria Falls in Zambia. Miraculously, Wang Shun Xue escaped with only bruises, News 24 reported Friday.
What was the tourist doing when he slipped and fell over the falls?
Taking photos. Travel experts advise that this is one of the biggest ways tourists get into trouble when they are visiting an unfamiliar destination. They are preoccupied about getting into position to get that perfect photo and sometimes lose sight of their surroundings. That is apparently what happened to the Chinese visitor to Victoria Falls.
"The depth of the gorge is 25 meters but where he fell from, it's about 15 meters because some places there are slopes." said John Zulu, manager of the National Heritage Conservation Commission in Livingstone. (25 meters is about 82 feet, 15 meters is 49 feet.)
Escaped with only minor injuries
The tourist fell on a rock and had bruises, according to Zulu who added that Xue understandably looked shocked because of the accident.
Xue is 45 years old. He was visiting from China with three friends. He flew out of Zambia after the falls plunge.
World famous falls
Victoria Falls, along with Niagara Falls, is world famous. At its deepest point, it plunges 354 feet. It is on the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is the biggest tourist attraction in Zambia.
Zambia’s official tourism board notes, “Victoria Falls present a spectacular sight of awe-inspiring beauty and grandeur on the Zambezi River, forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was described by the Kololo tribe living in the area in the 1800’s as ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ – ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. In more modern terms Victoria Falls is known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world.”
Previous fatalities
Previous deaths have been reported at the falls. Zimbabwe News reported about a case in 2009 in which a tour guide was killed while trying to save a tourist.
“The tour guide quickly grabbed the tourist’s hand and successfully pulled him back into the pool but in the process, he slipped and fell into the gorge down below,” the site reported.
As you can see in the video above, many tourists risk the falls plunge by swimming in the so-called Devil's Pool, on the edge of Victoria Falls.
'Lucky fall'
The Chinese tourist was extremely lucky to survive the Victoria Falls plunge with only minor injuries. So far no video has surfaced of that unlucky fall with a very lucky outcome.