Don't Miss:
Phantom of the Opera
The most popular and enduring musical of the 20th century returns to China, performed in English by a Western cast. The original version is on a China tour and set to perform in Shanghai from August 27 until October 13.
Shanghai
now has another "biggest in the world" title, with the opening of
L*SNOW - the words biggest indoor skiing park, currently in the
soft-opening phase, and officially open in early September.
It's located out there in Lingan, the free-trade zone behind Pudong airport close to the coastline where the Planetarium is -- about an hour and a half drive from downtown or about the same time on Line 2 and Line 16 from People's Square. It's basically a day trip from anywhere in downtown Shanghai.
We managed to grab some tickets and checked it out last week for some unbiased first views:
What Is It?
Although it's called a skiing theme resort, it's actually divided into three parts: a water park, and two areas dedicated to skiing and snow play.
The Ski area offers slopes for beginners, intermediate, and advanced skiers.
The Snow Play area offers various snow-related activities across different levels. From the 2nd to the 4th floors, you can enjoy a variety of activities, such as the Snowland Train, Clock Tower Drop, and Snow Mountain Cable Car. On the 3rd floor of the snow entertainment area, there's also an ice cave you can walk through. There are about 20 activities in total, including fast snow sledding, ice biking, and more.
We didn't get to try the water-park since that's in a different building. It has both indoor and outdoor sections?the indoor area is open year-round, while the outdoor area is only open during the summer.
There are also two hotels within the resort: the Shanghai Snow World Hotel, Vignette Collection, and Crowne Plaza Shanghai Snow World. At the first hotel, you can ski directly from your room into the slopes.
When we visited, the entire theme park was fully open. They were just conducting final tests, so you could already experience everything it has to offer.
The Experience
As you can expect from anything in Shanghai, these things get really busy, so expect getting tickets to be a hassle and waiting in lines at each activity. On our visit, even though it was a weekday and not fully open yet with a smaller crowd, we still had to wait for about half an hour to rent equipment. Unfortunately, there's only one shared rental area for both the ski part and the play area.
Equipment Rental
Renting ski or snowboards is free and included in the entrance fee, and there's different types of equipment available depending on your level of experience. Helmets are provided as well. The exclusive ski brand so far is the French brand Rossignol.
Gloves are not included, so it's best to bring your own as it can get very cold inside. If you're really sensitive to the cold, be sure to bring extra layers to wear inside.
An oversight on the construction seems to be the small and cramped unisex changing rooms, so turns out most people just change in the lobby.
The Skiing Experience
Once you're fully geared up, you can enter the skiing area, which has three slopes for beginners, intermediate, and advanced skiers. The quality of the slopes is decent, and if you have some skiing experience, you should be able to have a great time.
The snow quality at the ski area is relatively loose and powdery. However, as expected, once the resort officially opens and hundreds or thousands of people ski on it, the snow is likely to become harder and less ideal?unless they put in extra effort to make new snow more frequently. We'll see how it goes.
You can take the cable car to the top of the mountain for both snow play and skiing, but those without ski equipment are not allowed to get off at the top. There are also chairlifts on-site, but you need to have your skis on to use them, making them more suitable for experienced skiers.
There are restaurants on the fourth and fifth floors of the ski area, but they haven't opened yet, so it's best to bring your own food and water.
Ski Lessons Are Available
They also offer ski lessons, with prices varying depending on class size. One-on-one lessons are the most expensive, with a 100-minute snowboarding lesson costing 1,000rmb and a 100-minute skiing lesson costing 900rmb. Group lessons, which require 2-5 participants, are more affordable, ranging from 400 to 450rmb for 100 minutes.
Prices & Tickets
The
price for 4 hours of skiing is 410rmb, while 4 hours of snow play costs
210rmb. A full-day ticket to the water park is 90rmb. The time starts
counting from when you scan in. You can buy tickets for dates starting
from September 6 through the WeChat mini-program "耀雪冰雪世界."
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