A spectacular new water park has opened as part of the huge building that houses the Shanghai L+SNOW Indoor Skiing Theme Resort.

The new Shanghai Yaoxue Water World opens on May 31^st and is reported to be the city’s first new large-scale water park to open in more than a decade.

The water park is promoting itself as “China’s first open-air aerial water park”. The venue is 39 metres high and spectacular features water slides and indoor-outdoor attractions. It has a  17,000-square-metre indoor section known as Viking Harbour and a 12,000-square-metre  outdoor rooftop area, the Ice and Fire Canyon. In total it features 20 water slides including the AquaTube ,a 142-metre-long see-through slide that lets people watch people as they start outside, then slide indoors, and finish in a landing area.

There are also two AquaPlay structures, 54 AquaSplash toys as well as a 13-metre-wide wave pool.

After around a decade planning and construction, Shanghai L+SNOW opened last September when the water park was still incomplete.  It is the new world’s largest indoor snow centre by some measures.  There are also three international hotels linked to the site.

The new water park’s opening day coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival and Children’s Day holiday. The centre plans to organise associated events including Shanghai’s first Snowfield Dragon Boat Race as well as an electronic music festival.

Around 80,000 advance tickets had been sold ahead of opening day and the building expects to attract over 20,000 visitors a day from the start of June.

“We aim to leverage Shanghai’s pioneering economic strategy to stimulate micro-vacation consumption through high-quality snow and water attractions,” Li Ling, Director of Marketing for Shanghai L+SNOW Indoor Skiing Theme Resort, told Chinese media.