Tourist Office

Beijing
China
Website: www.qbski.com/

Description

The apparently insatiable desire for ski facilities in China has led to Tsinghua University in Beijing being behind Beijing’s first indoor ski and snowboarding centre.

The slope is the world’s sixth longest slope and fourth biggest by area. However in both categories it is beaten by Shanghai’s existing LongZhu Hokkaido Indoor Snow slope which is 380m long, but not as wide, however it does have a marginally greater area.

Qiaobo Ice and Snow World has been built by Beijing’s Tsinghua University, with expert help from Cimco Refrigeration, a Canadian company whose specialty is building and maintaining ice rinks. Set in the far reaches of the Shunyi suburb northeast of Beijing’s centre, the building has a sleek, streamlined futuristic profile having been designed by the University’s Design Institute.

Inside the 10 storey high structure there are two ski slopes, one a shorter beginner’s slope 150 meters long and the other for more advanced skiers stretching 275m. The two slopes together are 80m wide. In total there are 13,000 square meters of snow cover. Skiers and snowboarders are pulled to the top of the longer hill by a T-bar, while those using the beginner slope can take a “magic carpet” conveyor belt. The temperature inside is minus three degrees Celsius.

Equipment and clothing rental are available, other facilities are a restaurant, sauna and massage service.

The centre can accommodate upto 500 people at any given time, with 50 skiers on each slope, and the remaining 400 riding the lifts or waiting at the bottom or top.

The centre was originally supposed to open in March 2005, but construction delays, including a fire that ravaged the top half of the building, set it back to the summer.

Cimco and Tsinghua are reported to be considering building 10 more ski domes in China.

Beijing has seen an explosion in interest in winter sports generally with more than a dozen small conventional ski areas springing up around the city in the past few years.

Skiing in China has grown from around 50 known skiers in 1995 to between three and four million nationwide at present. Snowboarding is also becoming popular, and Beijing is estimated to be home to more than 1,000 snowboarders.

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Qiaobo Ice and Snow World, Shunyi , Beijing

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