Germany’s Der Spiegel recently praised Big Air Shougang as an architectural model of the Winter Olympic Games, comparable to an “Industrial Disneyland”, and considered that it was reasonable, appropriate and sustainable to use abandoned industrial parks to develop winter sports.

Skiing photos with cooling towers and steel facilities as the background may seem “wrong” to some, but they are in fact the perfect place for Olympic sports, Der Spiegel claimed in a recent article entitled “Sports Facilities in Beijing Industrial Park: The Destination of the Olympics”.

According to the article, in the industrialization process of international Olympic sports, Big Air Shougang conforms to the right trends by integrating the abandoned industrial park into a new business model. While it may seem surreal to locate the venue in an industrial landscape, steel production has long since vanished, transforming it into an “Industrial Disneyland”.

The article holds that the landscape of Big Air Shougang is more authentic than sports facilities that pretend to blend in with nature. If you have to choose between a forest and a cooling tower to build a big platform, the answer is definitely the cooling tower, even without hesitation.

As for Western media’s criticism of the Beijing Winter Olympics in terms of environmental protection, the article says that those who think that Big Air Shougang cannot reflect the characteristics of winter sports are extremely wrong. It is the most suitable venue for the current Winter Olympics.

Meanwhile, the article satirizes the “double standards” and “rose-tinted spectacles” of Western public opinions: “If such Olympic facilities appeared in Western cities such as London, Munich or Milan, the media comments would probably follow this trend: Look how cool it is, demonstrating the concept of industrial romanticism.”

German Snowstar participated in the design and construction of the slopestyle tracks at Big Air Shougang and Genting Ski Park. “I still clearly remember my surprise and excitement when I received the idea of designing and building a permanent big platform,” said Dirk Schauemann, head of Snowstar, in an interview with Süeddeutsche Zeitung.

“I can’t believe we finally turned this idea into reality. I like working with Chinese teams. They’re very professional and organized, even in small matters. The Chinese team members are quick learners who pick things up very quickly in many technical links.”