Water Cube to Be Repurposed as Beijing's Largest Sauna

Fresh off its use in the 2022 Winter Games, Beijing’s iconic “Water Cube” is once again undergoing a phase of transformation, this time into the city’s largest bathhouse. And along with the update comes a new nickname: The Steam Cube.

The facility will pay homage to the traditional Beijing bathhouses of yesteryear, and will feature natural hot spring water piped in from the mountains due west of Beijing and rooms full of massive communal bathing pools.

The change comes right after the facility finished its hosting of the curling events at the 2022 Games, where the swimming facilities in the iconic buliding were swapped out for curling sheets and the venue was rechristened the Ice Cube.

“Not only is Beijing the first city in the world to have hosted both the Winter and Summer Games, it now will be the first in the world to have a sporting facility that has focused on all three material phases of water: liquid, ice and now gas,” spokesperson Kai Wanxiao from the city’s Olympics organizing committee proudly told the Global Times.

An international all-you-can eat buffet will be installed on the upper floor, with a special focus on steamed treats such as baozi, mantou, rice cakes and shaomai.

Once completed, it will be able to house 3,500 bathers at the same time, Ren Hai, chairman of Beijing National Sauna Association, told Xinhua.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was quick to praise city planners for the innovative repurposing of the Olympic venues into high-use public facilities. "Next time I’m in town, I’m definitely getting one of those back scraping treatments,” IOC President Thomas Bach told Xinhua.

A flurry of activity is already underway to welcome the opening of the new venue, scheduled for this fall.

An official venue mascot, Ruh Tung Tung, the giant anthropomorphic mantou, is already under the process of trademark registration.

New official venue mascot, Ruh Tung Tung (artist's rendition)

Beijing is also already planning a bid to host the 2023 World Sauna Championships and has signed up Finnish champion Lotta Heatenen to be the venue's celebrity spokesperson.

World record holder Lotta Heatenen has been contracted be the venue's celebrity spokesperson

"It will take us around six months to complete the ice-to-steam transformation, which will involve more than 20 specific processing steps," Zhen Riqi, general manager of the National Aquatics Center, said.

Amongst them is the creation of the world's largest non-slip reusable slipper disinfecting machine, which is capable of sterilizing over 10,000 pairs of slippers a day. Planners hope to get recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest of its kind in the world.