The Forbidden Gardens

Hi y’all! It’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted because we were visiting friends down in Katy, Texas! Unfortunately you will have to suffer through my ramblings about our trip for the next few days. I will try my best to make it interesting.

The most unique place that we went was the Forbidden Gardens. You can read another article about it here. Basically, it is a miniature version of the Forbidden City of Beijing, The Temple of Heaven, The Calming of the Heart Lodge, and the canal city of Suzhou. There is also a miniature model of the terra-cotta army that Emperor Qin was buried with – about 6,000 soldiers. The army was buried in war formation. I learned that the soldiers at the front and the sides of the army had no armor and only basic weapons. These soldiers were the “new recruits” that had to prove themselves in battle before they could earn protective gear and better weapons. I wonder how many draft dodgers they had?

Anyway, here are some pictures. Overall, it reminds me of the House on the Rock in Wisconsin – a very eccentric obsession of one man now open to the public.

Meet Emperor Qin.





And some of his 6,000 soldiers.





Here is the model of the Forbidden City.





And again up close.