Former Virus Epicentre Now Has More Indoor Snow Centres Than Any Other City
The Chinese city of Wuhan in the country’s Hubei province has gone from being world famous as the place where the COVID-19 pandemic (probably) began in late 2019, to less well known as the city with more indoor snow centres than any other. It has four of them, all opened in the past three years.
The Chinese city of Wuhan in the country’s Hubei province has gone from being world famous as the place where the COVID-19 pandemic (probably) began in late 2019, to less well known as the city with more indoor snow centres than any other.
With two indoor snow centre’s opening last year, including the world’s third-largest to date, Wuhan is now home to no less than four indoor snow centres.
Inside China, the city is regarded as one of the country’s "four ovens" — cities known for their hot and humid summers – so the presence of three year-round snowy havens has been widely welcomed by the population of nearly 14 million, 100,000 of whom are officially estimated to be actively participate in ice and snow sports in the city.
According to the recently published 2025 World Indoor Snow Centres Report, the 200th indoor snow centre built worldwide over the past 40 years will open later this year. Centres have been built in more than 40 countries on six continents, but very few cities have more than one.
The latest Wuhan indoor snow centre to open at the end of last year is the Ganlushan International Ski Resort, the largest indoor ski resort in Central China and the third-largest in the country and indeed the world, with about 60,000 square metres (15 acres) of year-round indoor snow space.
The centre operates at a constant temperature of -6 C and is open year-round from 10 am to 9 pm or 10 pm. There are six runs, the longest 240 metres, the steepest pitching at 18 degrees and it received up to 2,000 visitors a day.
It joins the Wuhan Ice and Snow Center which also opened last year and two others that opened in 2022; Wuhan Dreatime WS Bonski and the Zhongrun Fun Valley Four Seasons Ski Resort.
