"By promoting this drama, we want to support the 2022 Winter Olympics that will be held in China and support the development of winter sports (in the country) so that more people get to know about them," says series producer Liu Ning.

The show is attracting attention from ice hockey players, too. Liu Zhixin, a member of the Chinese women's hockey team that won the Women's Hockey League Championship Season 2019-20 in Russia, also watched the show.

She says she had watched Japanese TV series Pride, which stars actor Takuya Kimura, and other films about ice hockey made in the United States and Russia.

"This time I noticed Skate into Love and realized that it is time for Chinese people to know about this sport," Liu Zhixin says on her Sina Weibo account.

Not all viewers, however, are pleased with the show. A few comments on the same micro blog say there were lapses in set design.

The series will also be broadcast in Russia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Spain.

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