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.

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.

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)

Having moved here in 2003, I regret that I might now have missed my opportunity to see an Ice Palace in the Twin Cities.