A new landmark of Beijing has been raised next to the Capital Skating Stadium on Zhongguancun South Street.

Nicknamed the "Temple of Ice," the training venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics Winter Sports Management Center completed work on its main structure Wednesday, which broke ground just over a year ago. The stadium has two ice rinks covering an area of 1,800 square meters, one of which is China's first Olympic-standard curling rink. According to the construction plan, the stadium will be ready for use by the end of 2019.

The Temple of Ice is located within the parameters of the Capital Skating Stadium. It is among the first batch of venue projects newly built for the Winter Olympics.

The venue was named for its unique look. A person in charge of the construction project said its top-down shape is just like a curling rock, and from the side it resembles scratches on the ice left by ice skates. The name also implies an "altar of ice" as the place of worship for winter sports competitions at the highest level.

The design of the venue was finalized after 16 revisions over eight years. The aboveground parts include two standard ice rinks. The first Olympic-standard curling rink in China is located on the first floor, and a rink for short track speed training is located on the third. The venue also includes other facilities such as physical training rooms, rehabilitation rooms, a kitchen, and a café on the first three floors, and athletes' bedrooms are located on the fourth through sixth floors.

The underground parts include equipment rooms and a parking lot. An 8-meter long passageway connecting the training venue and the Capital Skating Stadium will be built on the first basement floor.

The Temple of Ice will be accommodating a variety of Winter Olympics competition events and training activities, including curling, figure skating, short track speed skating, and ice hockey. According to the person in charge of the project, the venue has been designed to be able to convert between different functions. The curling rink on the first floor can be converted to an ice hockey rink, while the skating rink on the third floor can be used for both short track skating and figure skating.

The construction of ice rinks was reportedly the most important and challenging task in the whole project. The rinks must meet the standards for professional sports competitions in terms of the ice surface temperature and the utilization of heat recovery for the refrigeration system.

The venue has a specially designed heat recovery system, supplying heat to a number of equipment, such as air conditioners and heated floors to combat condensation, as well as snow-melting pipe systems and ice-laying vehicles. The stadium is also equipped with a smart central control to monitor and manage the various systems automatically.

With the completion of the main structure, the interior construction will begin. The outer wall is expected to be completed by early June next year, the installation and fine-turning of ice rinks is expected to be completed by the end of June and August respectively, and the interior construction will be completed by the end of September. The venue will be ready for use by the end of 2019.

After the Winter Olympics, the Temple of Ice will continue to serve as a training venue for national teams, and it will also become a shared facility open to the public.  

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