On November 11, the first carbon dioxide trans-critical direct cooling ice surface for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Games was born in the Capital Gymnasium. As of now, all 15 ice surfaces in the Beijing competition area have been constructed. All competition venues except the Capital Gymnasium are undergoing ice-making equipment debugging and will be completed this winter.

The Capital Gymnasium is the Beijing Winter Olympics short track speed skating and figure skating venue. The size of the ice surface is 31m×61m, which can meet the requirements of two competitions at the same time. The current ice-making is mainly to test the ice surfaces and ice-making system. The venue makes ice with carbon dioxide which has good refrigeration performance and can improve energy efficiency by 30% compared with conventional refrigerant. Furthermore, the trans-critical refrigerating system generates a large amount of high-quality residual heat while working, all of which can be recovered through a refrigerating-heating integrated design and reused for such purposes as water heating, ice-melting, and dehumidification. The Capital Gymnasium can save more than 1 million kilowatts of electricity every year by using the heat source generated by carbon dioxide ice making, largely increasing its green benefits.

All 15 rinks in the Beijing competition zone have been completed so far, including one in National Speed Skating Oval, two in National Indoor Stadium, two in National Aquatics Center, three in Wukesong Sports Center, five in Capital Gymnasium Park and two in National Disabled Ice Sports Training Center. Among 15 ice rinks in the Beijing competition zone, seven ice rinks will adopt the carbon dioxide trans-critical direct cooling technology which has been used in the Winter Olympics for the first time, making the Beijing Winter Olympics the first Winter Olympic Games to use carbon dioxide refrigerant on a large scale in history.

The designer of the 15 rinks in Beijing competition area fully considered the demand of their post-games utilization. For instance, the rink in National Speed Skating Oval is controlled in modular way so ice can be made by section according to actual needs, thus meeting the requirements for ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating in parallel. After the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Games, Capital Gymnasium Park will not only open to professional athletes for training purpose, but also open to the public to promote ice sports among the youth and enable visitors experience winter sports. It can meet the needs for competition, scientific research, training, and public exercise all at once. The National Aquatics Centre and Wukesong Sports Centre have innovatively realized the switch between winter and summer games, maximizing their utilization rate. The completion of the 15 rinks will give a strong boost to China's ice and snow industry and provide a golden opportunity to popularize winter sports across the society.