Construction of the National Sliding Center in Yanqing of Beijing has seen big progress that it began ice-making on Sept. 18, 2020 and is estimated to finish at the end of the month before China's national team train in the National Sliding Center in early October. (Photo: Xinhua)

 
All ice rinks in the Beijing competition zone of Beijing 2022 have completed site construction and will produce ice by the end of this year, according to the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office on Sunday.

Several days ago, the first ice rink made by carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games was born in the Capital Gymnasium which is a competition venue for short track speed skating and figure skating.

The carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling technology makes ice with carbon dioxide which has good refrigeration performance and can improve energy efficiency by 30% compared with conventional refrigerant. In addition, all of its waste heat can be recovered and reused. The Capital Gymnasium can save more than 1 million kilowatts of electricity every year by using the heat source generated by carbon dioxide ice making.

Among 15 ice rinks in the Beijing competition zone, seven ice rinks will adopt the carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling technology which has been used in the Winter Olympics for the first time, making the Beijing Winter Olympics the first Winter Olympic Games to use carbon dioxide refrigerant on a large scale in history.

All 15 ice surfaces in the Beijing competition consist of one in National Speed Skating Oval, two in National Indoor Stadium, two in National Aquatics Center, three in Wukesong Sports Center, five in Capital Gymnasium park and two in National Disabled Ice Sports Training Center.