Some venues for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are scheduled to open to the public before May Day this year. At present, the removal of personnel and equipment from the National Aquatics Center "Ice Cube" is progressing smoothly, and will be the first to meet with the public in April to fully open the scene experience during the Winter Olympic Games.
Yang Qiyong, general manager of the National Aquatics Center, said in an interview with reporters on the 20th that after the winter Olympic curling and winter Paralympic wheelchair curling events, in order to meet the public's demand for punch card experience, the "Ice Cube" competition hall will open for post-game visiting experience from April. In the hall, the image landscape of the Winter Olympics, the grandstand during the game, and the curling track are fully retained; the sports display performances during the game continue to be staged; the mascots "ice piers", "snow melting" and "continue to work" restore the "sense of the field" to the audience.
The National Aquatics Center "Ice Cube" is engaged in curling competitions. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Lei
Not only is it a souvenir of the photos, but the operation of the venue during the game is also designed to be open to the public as an experience project. The public can immerse themselves in "athlete identity", walk into the equipment area and dressing room where athletes' costumes, messages, and self-motivational slogans are retained, throw curling on the track, present awards during simulation matches, and be interviewed by rights holders in the media area to connect with their families by video link.
Yang Qiyong said that the core of the venue's post-game opening is "the all-round presentation of the original scene of the Winter Olympics, focusing on the original taste". At the same time, the venue took the opportunity of opening up to convey the culture and humanistic spirit of the Winter Olympics to more public.
For example, the venue team specially collected and sorted out the posters, work materials, promotional videos, etc. of volunteer service during the competition to continue to pay tribute to the spirit of volunteer service; the venue will also open an Olympic badge market to let the public feel the fun of collecting, exchanging and sharing badges.
Beijing, the National Aquatics Center at night "Ice Cube". Image source: Visual China
The reporter learned that after the conclusion of the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games, the long-term business activities of the National Aquatics Center have fully resumed, and the new sustainable development model of "ice and water sports two-wheel drive" has been fully launched.
In terms of water sports, after the post-race visit to the competition hall, the curling track is scheduled to return to the pool track in June and transform into the "Water Cube" to undertake water events; the water park and the renovated warm-up pool will also be opened to the public before the summer. Commercial events such as conferences, exhibitions, and performances at the venue will also resume.
In terms of ice sports, the "Ice Cube" Ice Sports Center, located in the underground space on the south side of the venue, will open to the public for the first time in May. The two ice rinks in the center will be ice-making all year round. The 1,000-square-meter ice rink is permanently used as a curling competition and training venue; the 1,830-square-meter ice rink features curling and diversifies figure skating, ice hockey, ice performances, etc. At the end of this year, the venue will introduce international curling competitions, which will be held in the competition hall or center as needed.
At the time when the Beijing Winter Olympics were not yet over, Beijing State-owned Assets Corporation, the owner of the National Aquatics Center, had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the World Curling Federation and the China Curling Association to set up a World Curling Academy Training Center at the "Ice Cube" Ice Sports Center, hold international curling events and series of curling training, and jointly promote the development of curling in China and the world.
"Curling is very popular in Canada and other countries, and there are also mature cases of marketization in South Korea and Japan. We hope to continue to invest resources and walk out of the new road of curling industrialization with Chinese characteristics. He revealed that the venue is localizing the mature curling training system of the World Curling Federation and developing training content suitable for Chinese teenagers.
"The elements and heritage of the Winter Olympics are so precious that we don't want them to pass away easily, but rather that the facilities, knowledge and culture will continue to bring value to the public." Yang Qiyong said that at present, the work of the stadium team is not over, and the closed-loop isolation personnel and non-closed-loop personnel are still working closely together to continue to sort out the legacy of the Winter Olympics and prepare for the opening, hoping to bring a better experience to the public at that time.
The graphic is written from Xinhua News Agency