Return of the Ice Palace

For a city that once pridefully built the ice palace — the last time was 2004 — it was cold comfort to hear last week that the St. Paul Winter Carnival was having a hard time raising money to buy blocks of ice for ice sculpting.

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An ice palace? That was never seriously considered. And good thing; the 2004 version took 27,000 blocks of ice. The 1992 version left organizers $600,000 in the hole.

In that context, then, what happens in China every year is astounding.

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That’s an image from last year’s Harbin Ice and Snow World in China.

Of course, you can do impressive things when you have 800,000 people to visit who don’t mind paying $21 apiece.

Like everything else winter-like, it’s feeling the heat of a warmer climate.

(H/T: Michael Wells)