On the evening of January 15th, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan and Finnish President Niinisto attended the opening ceremony of the 2019 China-Finland Year of Winter Sports held at Shougang Park.

Sun Chunlan pointed out that the "2019 China-Finland Year of Winter Sports" was an important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and President Niinisto. Yesterday, the two heads of state jointly launched the sports year and set off the first round of climax. Sino-Finnish sports, especially winter sports, share a solid foundation of cooperation and rapid development. China and Finland should continue to work closely together to implement the consensus of the two heads of state and jointly hold a wonderful year of winter sports.

Niinisto said that Finland attaches great importance to running the athletic year and believes that the cooperation between the two countries around winter sports will inject new vitality into the relationship between Finland and China.

Before the opening ceremony, Sun Chunlan and Niinisto visited the Sino-Finnish Sports Exchange Photo Exhibition together.

That night, the ice hockey hall at Shougang Beijing Park was decorated with a new, happy and peaceful scene. The white ice rink was dressed as a snow-and-ice stage, and Finnish elements such as sleds and elk were complemented by Chinese elements, such as pandas. Under the brilliant lights, the ice athletes and actors from China and Finland performed wonderful programs such as “Christmas Meets Chinese New Year,” “Fate of Ice and Snow,” “Flowery China and Finland,” “Poro,” “Come to Ski in China,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” World champions such as Wu Dajing, Sui Wenjing, Han Cong, Li Nina, Jia Zongyang and Jin Boyang interacted with famous Finnish athletes to express the good wishes of China and Finland for friendship and cooperation.

This is a national-level ice and snow event undertaken by Shougang Beijing Park in 2019. In order to do a good job in the service guarantee work for the opening ceremony, the Party Committee of Shougang Group attached great importance to it, carefully planned, and coordinated arrangements. The Group set up a leading group and six professional security teams to formulate a security plan and coordinate and organize Shougang Construction Investment Co., Ltd., the Shougang Park Sports Center, Park Management Department, Park Service Company, Shougang Construction, and other related units to be fully committed to the service guarantee work. Shougang Construction Investment Co., Ltd. established a special duty guard, inspection and repair mechanism, and carried out multiple inspections on the power supply, weak electricity, air conditioning, dehumidification, fire emergency water supply and drainage systems in the ice hockey rink, and patrol and monitor at any time to ensure the stable operation of each system. Under the leadership of the leading group, the Shougang Park Sports Center, the Park Management Department, the Park Service Company, the Shougang Construction Group, and other units actively cooperated with the higher-level departments to complete site construction, ice-making, security, traffic, project handover inspection, property services, VIP services, and other related work strictly according to requirements and time limits, and carried out multiple exercises and drills to fully guarantee the success of the opening ceremony of the China-Finland Year of Winter Sports.

The Shougang Ice Hockey Hall is renovated and expanded from the workshop of the original coal station dispatching room. The hall has been constructed with the ice making process and facilities that meet international first-class standards. Besides being able to shift quickly between functioning as a basketball court and an ice rink, the hall is also equipped with 212 sets of lights that will change the illumination according to different usage environments and form flashing effects according to the music frequency. There are 36 sets of temperature and humidity control equipment in the hall, covering all air flow layers, and there are also 2 rotary dehumidification units that will automatically activate the dehumidification and air conditioning systems according to the preset temperature and humidity, which meets the needs for different stratified temperatures in the areas of the ice hockey rink and the audience stands at the same time, and meets the temperature and humidity requirements for the ice sports while enabling the audience to watch the event comfortably.