Pyongyang Ice Rink
The National Ice Stadium of DPR Korea
About Pyongyang Ice Rink
The Ice Rink is located on the willow-lined Pothong River in Pyongyang. Its total floor space is 25,000 m2, its rink over 1,800 m2, and it has 6,000 seats.
There are entrances to all directions, making best of the round floor 135 m across; the halls with service facilities are finished with patterned natural slates, round tile pieces and light-coloured paints.
The seats for spectators are arranged in three terraces, each coloured in brown, blue and yellow respectively and in good harmony. From the centre of the high, round ceiling a gigantic sun-shaped lamp is hung, with chandeliers drooping and florescent lamps being arranged like rays around it.
The basement has eight lounges for athletes, a referee’s room, a fitness centre, a tea shop and other facilities for service and technical management.
The Ice Rink is a unique cone-shaped structure 65.5 m high. Supported by 24 huge inclined pillars, the bluish-white conical roof and gorgeous walls match so well that the whole building gives a feeling as if it were soaring up.
Beside the Ice Rink is a training ground with an area of 6,000 m2.
It is an established custom to shut the ice rink for half a year from May to October, as in high temperatures of summer it costs five times more expensive than in winter to form ice and remove fog from the water.
But the Ice Rink is always open even in hot summer to ordinary people as well as players. It welcomes schoolchildren in their summer holidays or after-school sports activities. It is also attracting people with soft drinks, saunas and other services, especially in sultry weather.
The Ice Rink, constructed by the direct initiative of President Kim Il Sung and under the meticulous care of leader Kim Jong Il, was inaugurated on April 7, 1982.
Since then it has provided venues to 69 international games including the Paektusan Prize International Figure Skating Festival and 313 domestic competitions. The number of visitors totals several million.
The management, technicians and workers of the Ice Rink are stepping up its modernization in order to contribute better to the sports development of the country and the entertainment of the people.