Liu brothers quickly into high gear

"The facility is amazing. Everything is at such a high level. It is a huge difference. In China, they put everything together and they know how to prepare everything. We live on the fifth floor of the building. The ice rink, medical room, rehab rooms and warm-up rooms are on the third floor," Shaoang told isu.org.

"On the second floor, we have a lounge and restaurant where we can eat. So all we need to do every day is to take a lift. It's crazy."

Some of China's homegrown youngsters also delivered impressive performances in Montreal, including Xu Aili's fourth-place finish in the women's 1,500m final and Sun Ye's sixth-place finish in the women's 500m.

However, Zhang stressed that the next generation still has a lot of work to do to catch up with the world's best.

"Our veterans have gradually recovered physically and proved they remain world-class competitors. Our young talents, though, still need to learn and improve to be able to perform more consistently and aggressively on the world stage," said Zhang.

The World Cup circuit stays in Montreal for a second leg at the same venue this coming weekend before heading to Beijing from Dec 8-10, when the Chinese team will be raring to treat the home fans to more golds on the Olympic track at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

"When we have the competition in December in Beijing it is going to be a huge event, it is going to be a full house," said Shaoang.