Every Saturday afternoon, the intense scene on the indoor skating rink at the Beijing shopping mall Joy City is reminiscent of a competitive hockey league.

Passersby are easily attracted to the sound of blades cutting hard on ice, shoulder pads colliding and the chanting of more than 20 children who practice ice hockey in professional outfits on the standard 1,800-square-meter surface for 90 minutes every Saturday.

Yi Shaohan, one of the junior enthusiasts, has been playing hard since his mother Zhou Qin helped him sign up for two extra training sessions a week beginning in early 2012 to feed the 9-year-old's growing passion for the sport.