The construction of the Ice Cube's ice sports center, the facilitating structure of the 2022 Winter Olympics venue, officially kicked off Monday, as a wood pile was drilled into the earth in the southern plaza of the National Aquatics Center.

With an operating area of about 8,000 square meters, the structure is scheduled to be put into use by 2020, and is expected to host more than 100,000 visitors annually.

As the 2022 Winter Olympics approaches, many projects have begun construction. As one such project, the ice sports center is planned to include a standard-sized ice rink that is 1,830 square meters large, and four standard-sized curling tracks that are 45 meters long and 5 meters wide. It will be used during the Winter Olympics, and after that it will be retained for the public as a promoting and training center of ice sports.

Yang Qiyong, general manager of the National Aquatics Center, said the center will permanently retain its ice function and become an ice sports platform integrating the functions of ice sports events, skating for fitness, ice sports training, sports tourism, performances on ice. 

"When it's completed, the National Aquatics Center will become the only one in China that has both facilities in ice and water sports, which shall become a strong driving force for the sustainable development of the Olympic venues," Yang said.

As the project's investor and constructor, Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co. set a requirement for the ice sports center to fully implement the concept of "green, shared, open, and clean."

The project's current engineering team, China Construction First Bureau Group, also participated in the construction of the Water Cube more than 10 years ago. The group has appointed Sun Hongzhuang, former general manager of the Water Cube project, as the head of the Ice Cube to coordinate the overall construction and deployment. Sun said he was thrilled to once again devote himself to the construction of Olympic venues.

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