Connect with us

Trending

China: World’s largest indoor ski resort opens in Shanghai

Published

on

Spread the love

The massive facility using artificial snow and cooling machines is modeled like a glacier and opened fully to customers, after lengthy delays, on Friday. China’s northern natural pistes are shrinking amid climate change.

The facility has four separate slopes and an array of other rides, with a cable car, chairlifts and trains ferrying people to the summits
© Hector Retamal/AFP

 

Shanghai opened the world’s largest indoor ski resort on Friday amid searing temperatures outside as China reported its hottest August in 60 years.

Temperatures were already at 30 degrees Celsius (roughly 86 Fahrenheit) by 9 a.m. during Friday’s outdoor opening ceremony in a mock Alpine square, but were closer to freezing point inside the building.

The building has a skiing area of 90,000 square meters or 9 hectares. Incorporating other facilities likes shops, hotels, and a still-unopened water park the construction area extends to 350,000 square meters.

The vast resort is one of many large expensive projects developed in recent decades in Shanghai’s once sparsely-populated Pudong district
© CFOTO/picture alliance

The festivities marked the end of a difficult teething and test period for the facility. Chinese state media reported that safety procedures were being reviewed after an incident on Wednesday, when limited numbers of people were already allowed in, in which a patron’s finger was severed by another skier.

Industry expansion amid Winter Olympics

Years in the making, once scheduled to open in 2019 according to Chinese media, the vast resort is part of a state-supported winter sports investment drive rooted partly in the country hosting the last Winter Olympics in 2022 and also in a more general bid to cater to the recreational wishes of an expanding middle class.

The Guinness Book of Records certified the facility as the largest of its kind in the world on opening day, surpassing another giant Chinese facility in Harbin
© Hector Retamal/AFP

Located in Shanghai’s Pudong district, the L*SNOW Indoor Skiing Theme Resort was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest on its opening day on Friday. It overtakes another Chinese facility in northern Harbin.

China has developed several such indoor resorts in recent years and boasts five of the 10 largest by skiing area in the world, according to Daxue Consulting. China’s CCTV reported that some 360 million people in the country do winter sports.

The construction coincides with retreating and less reliable snow slopes in the traditional skiing resorts in the north of the country amid climate change, a tale familiar to European skiiers visiting mountain ranges like the Alps.

“In China, it might have more of an effect in the north because of climate change, there are fewer people doing winter sports there,” 48-year-old skier Zhang Jin told the AFP news agency. “So some of the snow parks just aren’t operating well, they’re shrinking. Instead, it’s this kind of thing opening up right now, larger indoor ones, which I think is still pretty good.”

Solar panels on roof to offset ‘inevitably’ consuming ‘a lot’ of energy

The center uses artifical snow, rather than the oft-maligned dry ski slopes that may not provide as authentic an experience for enthusiasts but that can operate in any weather all year round.

Officials said that it uses 72 cooling machines to maitain an indoor temperature around freezing point, and 33 snow-making machines to feed the pistes.

A Shanghai government report in August acknowledged that such projects “will inevitably consume a lot of energy.” But it also said the resort was built to maximize energy reuse where possible, for instance via ice storage and waste-heat recovery systems.

Three-quarters of the building’s roof is covered with solar photovoltaic panels to help power it.

“We have taken a lot of energy-saving measures,” resort executive Yin Kang told AFP.

Chinese state media reported that the steepest slope had a 26 degree gradient, and the longest s-bend course extended for 460 meters (around 500 yards)
© Hector Retamal/AFP

 

Trending

Full Lists Of Notorious Bandits Leaders Killed By Nigeria Military Within The Past Week;

Published

on

Spread the love

 

1. Buhari Alhaji Halidu otherwise known as “Buharin Yadi”

He unleashed terror on citizens in Kidandan/Galadimawa general areas of Giwa LGA, Sabon Birni/Kerawa general areas of Igabi LGA, other locations in nearby Sabuwa LGA of Katsina State, and indeed some parts of Niger and Zamfara states.

2. A kingpin commonly called Dangote

Dangote was killed in a gun battle with Kachalla Dankarami’s camp along the Dumbunrun Forest between Batsari and Jibia local government areas of Katsina State.

3. Boderi Isyaku

A notorious bandit leader, responsible for the kidnapping of 39 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation and the attack on the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna in 2021.

4. Dogo Rabe

He was killed in an Air Force strike during an operation to flush out terrorists operating in communities between the Zurmi and Birnin Magaji areas in Zamfara State, and Jibia in Katsina State.

5. Alhaji Auta and Kachalla Ruga

They were killed alongside many of their gang members in a raid on their enclaves at Gusami Forest and Tsamre village in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

6. Rufai Maikaji

He was a deadly bandit who commanded over a hundred fighters in Zamfara state. He was killed along side many of his boys.

7. Ya’u

He was killed in an ambush by the troops at a strategic crossing point in Burra, Ningi. He was the leader of the gang which is notorious for using heavy weaponry to instill terror among the residents of Burra and neighbouring communities.

8. Alhaji Karki

He was killed while attempting to overrun a military unit in Niger State. Karki, who once repented but later went back to criminality, had been terrorizing Niger communities and was responsible for killings, arsons and kidnappings in the areas.

12. Bandit leader “Yellow”

He was operating several bandit camps in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina states, but was killed following Nigerian Airforce air strikes in Katsina and Zamfara states.

13. Halilu Sububu

14. Kachalla Dan Chaki

15. Dogo Gudali

Continue Reading

Trending

Russian nuclear test chief says Moscow ready to resume testing ‘at any moment’

Published

on

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a military parade in Moscow's Red Square in May. Photo: Kremlin.ru via Reuters
Spread the love

Russia has not done such tests in over 30 years, but Putin could do so to send a message to the West over long-range missiles for Ukraine

The head of Russia’s nuclear testing site said on Tuesday his secretive facility was ready to resume nuclear tests “at any moment” if Moscow gave the order, in rare comments likely to fuel concerns that the risk of such a step is rising.

Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the fall of the Soviet Union, but some Western and Russian analysts say President Vladimir Putin could order one to try to send a message of deterrence to the West if it lets Ukraine use its long-range missiles to strike Russia, something that is under discussion.

A nuclear test by Russia could encourage others such as China or the United States to follow suit, starting a new nuclear arms race between the big powers, which stopped nuclear testing in the years after the Soviet collapse.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Russia’s testing site, located on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, was where the Soviet Union conducted more than 200 nuclear tests, including the detonation of the world’s most powerful nuclear bomb ever in 1961.

It is closely watched by Western spy satellites for activity amid signs of construction work last summer shown in open-source satellite images.

Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn, the head of the facility, gave a rare interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Russian government’s official newspaper, which was published on Tuesday, days after Putin warned the West it would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles and spoke of retaliation.

“The test site is ready for resumption of full-scale testing activities. It is ready in its entirety. Laboratory and testing facilities are ready. The personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start testing at any moment,” Sinitsyn said.

Pictured in his naval uniform alongside a cabinet holding a book about Putin and a giant white porcelain polar bear, Sinitsyn painted a picture of a facility kept in a high state of readiness that was protected by elite troops.

“The most important thing for us is not to disrupt the implementation of state tasks. If the task of resuming tests is set, it will be accomplished within the time frame stipulated,” he said.

Putin, in charge of the world’s largest nuclear power, signed a law last November withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, a move he said was designed to bring Russia into line with the United States, which signed but never ratified the treaty.

Russian diplomats said at the time that Moscow would not resume nuclear testing unless Washington does. Putin said in June Russia could test a nuclear weapon “if necessary”, but saw no need to do so at the present time.

The United States last tested in 1992. Only North Korea has conducted a test involving a nuclear explosion this century.

A senior member of a Russian think-tank whose ideas sometimes become government policy suggested in May that Moscow consider a “demonstrative” nuclear explosion to cow the West.

In an article for Profil, a business magazine, Dmitry Suslov said Russia needed to act to dissuade the West from crossing a red line.

“The political and psychological effect of a nuclear mushroom cloud, which will be shown live on all television channels around the world, will hopefully remind Western politicians of the one thing that has prevented wars between the great powers since 1945 and that they have now largely lost – fear of nuclear war,” Suslov wrote.

More Articles from SCMP

SCMP Best Bets: Punters can take a Chill pill at Happy Valley

Chinese AI start-up founder hails ‘important improvement’ in OpenAI’s newest model

Hong Kong watch repairer, 76, set to secure hawker licence after 6-year fight

Direct India-China flights could take off again after 4-year halt amid thaw in frosty ties

Continue Reading

Trending

President Bola Tinubu arrived in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday to sympathize with the government and people of the state over the recent flood disaster.

Published

on

Spread the love

President Bola Tinubu arrived in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday to sympathize with the government and people of the state over the recent flood disaster.

He arrived at 3:40pm and headed to one of the emergency camps to commiserate with the victims of the flood.

At the Camp, President Tinubu assured the displaced persons that his government will support them.


“I want to assure you that we are going to support you, we will support you. God Bless you,” Tinubu said.

Continue Reading

Trending