A primary school named Harbin Nancheng No. 1 Primary School will host the curling contests at the 2025 Asian Winter Games slated to open on February 7 at its ice hockey stadium.
From April to October in 2024, the venue underwent months of renovation in preparation for the upcoming games in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China.
Now the venue is installed with sports lighting, sound reinforcement equipment, communication aids and meteorological monitoring devices.
And its ice surface has been upgraded.
"The temperature of the ice surface for curling competitions is at minus 5.5 degrees to minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, and the difference is not allowed to be too significant. When we entered the venue in April, experts found that the height difference of the ground of the original ice hockey stadium was not up to standards of curling competitions. A team of experts conducted analysis, and came up with a conclusion that the original ice surface for ice hockey games must be completely dismantled from the basic refrigeration and re-leveled. This project alone took us nearly two months," said Wu Yunlong, deputy director of facilities and operations at curling arena operation team in Pingfang.
The team also addressed a series of technical challenges regarding ventilation, dehumidification, and temperature control.
Classrooms of the school have been transformed into locker rooms, where sports teams can change clothes, record information on whiteboards, get relaxed and watch games live on TVs.
One of the reasons why Harbin chose to hold curling events in the primary school is that it hopes to engage more children to join winter sports.
In 2002, the school set up its first ice hockey team for girls, and in 2017, it built the first ice hockey stadium in China's rural primary schools, which serves as an excellent training venue for teenagers playing ice hockey.
Pingfang has trained 266 male and female ice hockey players for the country, province and city, of whom 68 have been selected for the national team. Among the members of the national ice hockey team to compete at the upcoming Asian Winter Games, 10 come from this school.
Asian Winter Games' curling arena set at primary school stadium
