The National Ski Jumping Center is located in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou. The center's S-type curve resembles the shape of a jade Ruyi scepter, a traditional Chinese ceremonial object-earning it the nickname "Snow Ruyi". The Snow Ruyi is China's first international standard ski jumping site, but it's the most advanced on earth. One of the special features is that there is also a standard football field in the National Ski Jumping Center. And the magical grass of this field is produced in Guangdong.
There is the longest ski jumping track in the world with a 35-degree slope in the “Snow Ruyi”. Stabilizing snow on the slopes is not an easy task. AVG, a company in Zhaoqing, Guangdong is the company who’s scientific research team customized an exclusive artificial grass for the Center. These grasses can accumulate snow during the Winter Olympics. In summer, the flied can also be used for grass skating and football games.
"Snow Ruyi" covered with artificial turf. (Photo: Xinhua)
According to Chu Zheng, the sales director of AVG, the National Ski Jumping Center is one of the new venues for the Beijing Winter Olympics with the most difficult construction. In order to ensure the sports performance and safety of the sports field, AVG's R&D team used a diamond-free sports field system specially customized for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The system builds a jagged shock-absorbing layer on the ground surface to ensure that the field will not move when athletes are exercising. There are also holes at the bottom of this system, which can quickly drain water after melting snow, which is conducive to site conversion. In addition, these artificial turf units act as a cushion under the snow and can also alleviate impact to give athletes better injury protection.
The artificial grass football field buried in the snow in the center of the stand of "Snow Ruyi" is connected with the lawn on the slide. This means that the venue can be used for skiing, grass skating and football, meeting diverse needs.
Staff were laying the lawn.(Photo provided to Newsgd.com)
In fact, many Guangdong enterprises have participated in the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics. In addition to the construction of artificial turf, the automatic catering equipment of the smart restaurant in the main media center, nucleic acid detection vehicles and wearable body temperature stickers, green hydrogen energy and other products are all produced in Guangdong.
Author | Alice Fung, Zhu Jiangwei, Li Ting