Hong Kong has its first synthetic ice skating rink.
The arena is about one-ninth the size of a standard ice rink and has been built in a Tung Chung school hall on Lantau Island, as part of the Hong Kong Academy of Ice Hockey's summer programme.
The HK$1 million rink at HKFEW Wong Cho Bau School is made of panels of high-density polyethylene, which resembles real ice but is more resistant.
'Skating here isn't that much different from the real thing,' 13-year-old goalie Jonathan Hon Yi-feng, of King George V School, said. 'It's just harder to glide on than real ice - and hotter. But it's acceptable overall.'
The academy's ice hockey coach Barry Beck, from Vancouver, said: 'It does not give a 'glide factor' as real ice does, so this resistance can be a form of leg training for beginners. All they have to do later is to practise their balancing skills on real ice.'
As well as requiring no refrigeration equipment, the panels, with an estimated lifespan of 10 years, are also reusable and portable.