The ‘super-duper cool’ truth behind Big Air’s crazy ‘virtual world’ venue for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

A steel mill shut down when China hosted the 2008 Olympics has become the talk of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after the freeski big air competition began on Monday.

The 60m structure has been built on the site of the former Shougang Group steel mill, a state-owned plant that helped China become a world leader in steel production.

Watch athletes take to the sky at the strange venue in the video above

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Its billowing smokestacks provided work for thousands but also darkened the sky over Beijing’s Shijingshan District.

The sprawling campus has since been converted into a bizarre city oasis and is now the permanent home to the big air ramp, with athletes hoping the ‘super-duper cool’ venue provides a template for the sport’s future.

Rusting factories and machinery remain, but the space between has been filled by grassy lawns, glassy ponds and a good deal of greenery.

One of the blast furnaces was given a facelift and turned into a steampunk-style event space with shops, commercial offices and a museum.

The yards host dance showcases in the summer, and architects plan to transform one of the massive cooling towers hovering over the big air jump into a wedding venue.

“This feels like it was created in a virtual world, in a video game,” American freeskiier Nick Goepper said.

His teammate Alex Hall reckons the “crazy smokestack things in the back are pretty cool”.

“You get to see some of the mountains in the background, you got this temple here, the city’s that way, the steel factory. You get to see a lot of stuff,” he said.

Fans were less enthused, with many likening it to, or assuming it was, a nuclear power plant, similar to that seen in