The world's largest indoor skiing facility has opened

Normally, Shanghai is hardly a place associated with skiing, given that the area typically only gets a few snowflakes in winter, which quickly melt away. But now, you can ski here year-round. Yesterday, the world's largest indoor ski facility opened its doors in Shanghai, and it's undeniably an impressive construction.

In total, there is an area of nine hectares of skiing (that is, 90,000 square meters) with four different slopes to ski on. There's also a gondola, a four-seater chairlift, and a couple of trains to take skiers to the top. The highest slope is 60 meters high, which may not sound very impressive, but considering that everything is indoors, it's not too bad. Besides skiing, there are several shops and even a ski-in-ski-out hotel with 17 rooms.

Furthermore, the L*SNOW Indoor Skiing Theme Resort, as the facility is called, has 33 snow cannons to create all the snow needed to cover the slopes, and naturally, a massive cooling system to keep everything below freezing. This setup requires a lot of energy, especially during the summer when the average temperature in Shanghai is over 30 degrees Celsius. According to statements, most of the energy is sourced from renewable sources, including "recycling" the heat that is pumped out. The facility also has an extensive solar panel area on the roofs.

So, how much does it cost to ski in this giant facility? According to the website *shine.cn (where you can also see several pictures of how it looks), it costs a bit less than skiing in the Alps or the Swedish mountains. A full-day pass typically costs 220 renminbi (about 28 euro/31 USD), while the price during peak season is 300 renminbi (around 38 euro/42 USD), and on major holidays, 400 renminbi (about 50 euro/55 USD).