This new site has artificial snow on 98,000 enclosed square meters, under an outside temperature of more than 30 degrees.
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Summer is ending, but it’s still very hot in the suburbs of Shanghai. Nearly 32 degrees this morning. The visitors who arrive don’t really look like skiers. “Here I am wearing big shorts and flip-flops. It’s my summer outfit for the heatwave.”said a customer before entering.
Once through the gate, the temperature drops sharply to -5 degrees. Skiers have put on their gear and are starting to enjoy the three slopes that the complex has, with its chairlift and cable car. Around thirty cannons also ensure a snow depth of 70 centimetres. A functioning that seems totally out of place given the outside temperature, but this does not seem to bother the visitors. “This ski resort consumes a lot of energy, but there are a lot of people who like to ski here in Shanghai, because it’s very far to go skiing elsewhere.”answers a first passerby. “I paid for my ticket, I’m here to enjoy myself. I don’t think about anything else”says a woman.
“There is no natural ski resort here in Shanghai. But thanks to this resort, we can still ski 365 days a year. It allows us to satisfy our desire!”
The challenge is to be able to maintain a negative temperature when outside it is more than 30 degrees and sometimes even 40 degrees, in the summer in Shanghai. The station’s operations manager, Ying Kang, does not give a precise figure on energy consumption and tries to justify the project. “We have photovoltaic panels on the roof that produce 3,400,000 kilowatt hours per year, he explains. The insulation is exceptionally good, but from another point of view, we have to meet people’s demand. And in any case, if our visitors don’t come here to ski, they will take the plane to go skiing further away. That’s what will also lead to energy consumption.”
Nearly a billion euros were invested to build this “indoor ski” complex, the largest in the world after the one in Dubai, which held the record. In a few days, the site already welcomed 100,000 skiers and aims for three million visitors each year. China now has around fifty complexes of this type where you can ski all year round, whatever the outside temperature.