A tourist village in China famous for its winter scenery has been forced to apologise after using cotton wool and soapy water to create fake snow.

The Chengdu Snow Village faced an avalanche of criticism for being “a snow village without snow” as unseasonably warm weather hit Sichuan province.

Management said the cotton wool “did not achieve the expected effect”.

In a post on its official Wechat account on Feb 8, the Chengdu Snow Village project said that during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, the weather was warm and the snow village did not take shape as anticipated.

“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 said in a statement.

It added it “deeply apologises” for the changes and that visitors could get a refund.

The site has since been closed.

Photos on Wechat showed large cotton wool sheets strewn about the grounds, only partially covering leafy areas.

A thick snow layer appeared to blanket the houses in the zone but as you got closer, it was all cotton, said one netizen.

“A snow village without snow,” said another user.

“In today’s age of well-developed Internet, scenic spots must advertise truthfully and avoid deception or false advertising, otherwise they will only shoot themselves in the foot.”

Following the backlash, the village started removing the cotton.

China is facing hotter and longer heatwaves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change, the country’s weather bureau has warned. It is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.