Wow. It is new, just opened four months ago. I knew there was an indoor ski place in Shenzhen where I was traveling for a conference, but I did not know that they would have the world's largest indoor ski hall. Now I *had* to find an evening to visit it.
They can prove they are the largest:
Quite remarkable experience. Generally any ski hall is big, but not necessarily enormous. This one felt massive even from the outside. The numbers are also remarkable: 1.5 kilometers of slopes, largest vertical drop 90 meters, two chair lifts and three other lifts.
The building was simply massive, this photo was taken couple of kilometers away:
And it was very well done. Not tacky or broken as some places may be. But efficient, modern, clean, and overall well organized. Except maybe for my ability to find this place or use their website to buy a ticket. There was quite a bit of confusion in Google Maps and other map services about the location, as there are *several* indoor ski halls in Shenzhen, and some of them are similarly named.
But trip.com gave me a possibility to buy a ticket beforehand, quite easily, and even on site my friend who didn't have a ticket was able to buy one on site in couple of minutes.
If there's one complain it is that the slope design is a bit too straightforward. That is, the slopes are straight :-) I keep comparing this to the previously largest one (also in China, in Harbin, article and alt. link) or one of my favorites Big Snow (in United States, New Jersey, article and alt. link). Or the one in Dubai. And in all of these cases the other large ski halls seem to feel better from a slope perspective. In Harbin, for instance, the blue slope makes a 180 degree turn so that it ends up being a bit less steep and much longer than the it would be if it were straight. Also, generally the different slopes aren't as strictly separated for instance in Dubai as they are here in Shenzhen.
I'd prefer skiing in the three alternative halls over the one in Shenzhen. But skiing was of course great anyway. Much appreciated the opportunity to try this out.
The official web site of Qianhai Snow World is here. If you want to buy tickets via trip.com, use this link.
Slopes, lifts, and skiing:
Offices, changing rooms, tickets, etc:
I brought my skis all the way from Finland for this, despite not knowing beforehand that it was going to be such a big experience.
This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.
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