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Visit to the Forbidden Gardens
This is something you've all been waiting eagerly on tenterhooks for, I expect: my trip back in April, when I was visiting ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
myrialux, to the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, TX - a suburb of Houston.
The Forbidden Gardens is a ... well, historical and cultural outdoor museum is, I guess the best thing to call it. According to Texas Twisted and another article online that I can't find right now, it was started by a reclusive millionaire living in Seattle and Hong Kong who wanted Chinese-Americans to know more about their heritage.
It features a 1/3 scale model of the terracotta warriors found at the tomb of the first Emperor of Qin in China, and a scale model of the Forbidden City. It's open to the public on Friday through Sunday, and access to the exhibits is by guided tour only, which runs five times a day. Admission is $10 a head.
I have to say that the Forbidden Gardens were everything I expected and more, and I went in expecting Cheese Factor Nine. It was a really cool experience, though, and the things that the guide explained about the history of the tomb and the Forbidden City that matched up with things I knew to be true made me pretty confident about everything she said. (I've been to other museums and tours where what was told us was completely wrong, so I'm fairly sensitive to that sort of thing.)
On to the pictures!
As you turn onto the Forbidden Gardens property, you drive up a long avenue that would be shaded with trees if they weren't quite so stunted.
Upon parking, you cross a colorful bridge over a pond to reach the main entrance.
The pond is stocked with koi and turtles, and you can buy cat food at the entrance to feed them.
There are little touches everywhere you look, like the dragon-head drain spout and the fish sculpture.
There's a little seating area just after the bridge, before you go through the gate.
After paying your entrance fee, you go into this large courtyard.
This is the entrance gate from the courtyard.
Small exhibits ring the courtyard, but as the tour covers those at the end, I'll save the photos til then, too. While you're waiting for your tour to start, you can go into a (thankfully air-conditioned) room and watch a 22-minute video on the Qin Emperor and the terracotta army.
This is the gate where your tour convenes. I have no idea what the white blobby figures are supposed to represent, although they bear a bit of a resemblance to Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist.
As you enter the gates, you see a small grouping of full-size replicas of a chariot, horses, and warriors from the Terracotta Army.
This is our guide, providing an amusing photo op. :)
For those who don't know about the Terracotta Army, when the tomb of the First Emperor of Qin was discovered, the diggers found thousands of terracotta warriors, horses, and chariots standing in formation in big chariots in front of the tomb itself. The Emperor apparently had made enough enemies on earth that he decided he eneded his army with him in heaven, so he took it with him. Each warrior, while built on a few generic body bases, has unique elements: the head, the weapons, the hairstyle, etc. Enough to indicate that each one was meant to represent a specific person in his army, whether general, officer, or lowly infantry. Quoting Wikipedia, "Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits."
This is the 1/3 scale replica: each warrior, made in Xi'an near the original tomb, stands in place where he stands in the tomb site.
You can see how they differ here in the details of their faces, clothes, and the way they stand. Keep in your mind that each of these is most likely a portrait of a specific man alive at the time of the First Emperor of Qin, in 210 BC. These represent individual people from 2400 years ago, which ought to give you a little frisson of something-or-other. It does me.
There's also a 1/3 scale replica of the tomb mound behind them.
The stories say that the Emperor of Qin had models of palaces, towers, and so on built in a cavern, with gems studding the ceiling to represent stars, and rivers of mercury flowing through it. No one knows how true this is, but tests on the soil in the area show higher levels of mercury here than in the rest of the area. The tomb itself has not been excavated, partly out of concern for the mercury levels.
The infantry stands directly in front of the tomb, but the archers stand ready off to the side here.
Their weapons have long since rotted away, being made of organic materials, but you can see where they stood ready to draw and shoot if needed.
The officers of the army stand a little way over. These are half-scale replicas, at about 3 feet tall.
Horses stand ready to draw chariots.
More officials.
On the way out of this area, you go back by the full-scale replicas of the charioteers.
I kind of like that guy on the left. He looks like a happy guy.
The tour continues through a room with some replica weapons.
And then onto a small replica of one of the Imperial residences, from a later era in history.
A little farther on outdoors, a giant aluminum pavilion covers a 1/20 scale model of the Forbidden City. This was the Imperial Palace from the 15th century until the beginning of the 20th. The movie The Last Emperor of China starts here.
This is the army and various palace officials lined up for the Emperor to review. I think it may depict a specific festival or event, but I can't remember for sure.
These are the Empress' quarters and gardens.
The whole Palace area is huge, and even though I'm not a wargamer, it makes me want to game, just to be able to stand to the side and push figurines around with shuffleboard sticks. :)
After you finish the Forbidden Palace tour, you go into a room that has three models that show the intricate architecture of buildings of the period. They look tall, like they're 2 or 3 stories, but they're not: the roofs are high to allow for air circulation and to control the temperature inside during the cold of winter and the heat of summer.
No nails are used in their construction: pegs and joins are instead.
After you finish this room, you go back outside into the courtyard and go around to the small exhibits ringing it. This is a room that contains a model of the city of Suzhou, which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful in China.
There are a few other rooms set up as displays, with replica items. This one is the Emperor's Dining Room, which, as the guide poitned out, is much, much smaller with many fewer dishes than he would have had. :)
After the tour was over, we wandered around a bit and I attempted to make art. :)
Then you leave the area, walking back over the bridge by which you entered.
Perhaps feeding a few fish and turtles on the way.
Out in the parking area, this sculture stands. I have no idea what it is, as the sign that explained it had a cracked plastic cover, and moisture had seeped in and ruined the paper that explained it.
And I leave you with this, one of the lions that guard the pillar.
And that was our trip. Definitely worth the entrance fee.
myrialux, to the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, TX - a suburb of Houston.The Forbidden Gardens is a ... well, historical and cultural outdoor museum is, I guess the best thing to call it. According to Texas Twisted and another article online that I can't find right now, it was started by a reclusive millionaire living in Seattle and Hong Kong who wanted Chinese-Americans to know more about their heritage.
It features a 1/3 scale model of the terracotta warriors found at the tomb of the first Emperor of Qin in China, and a scale model of the Forbidden City. It's open to the public on Friday through Sunday, and access to the exhibits is by guided tour only, which runs five times a day. Admission is $10 a head.
I have to say that the Forbidden Gardens were everything I expected and more, and I went in expecting Cheese Factor Nine. It was a really cool experience, though, and the things that the guide explained about the history of the tomb and the Forbidden City that matched up with things I knew to be true made me pretty confident about everything she said. (I've been to other museums and tours where what was told us was completely wrong, so I'm fairly sensitive to that sort of thing.)
On to the pictures!
As you turn onto the Forbidden Gardens property, you drive up a long avenue that would be shaded with trees if they weren't quite so stunted.
Upon parking, you cross a colorful bridge over a pond to reach the main entrance.
The pond is stocked with koi and turtles, and you can buy cat food at the entrance to feed them.
There are little touches everywhere you look, like the dragon-head drain spout and the fish sculpture.
There's a little seating area just after the bridge, before you go through the gate.
After paying your entrance fee, you go into this large courtyard.
This is the entrance gate from the courtyard.
Small exhibits ring the courtyard, but as the tour covers those at the end, I'll save the photos til then, too. While you're waiting for your tour to start, you can go into a (thankfully air-conditioned) room and watch a 22-minute video on the Qin Emperor and the terracotta army.
This is the gate where your tour convenes. I have no idea what the white blobby figures are supposed to represent, although they bear a bit of a resemblance to Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist.
As you enter the gates, you see a small grouping of full-size replicas of a chariot, horses, and warriors from the Terracotta Army.
This is our guide, providing an amusing photo op. :)
For those who don't know about the Terracotta Army, when the tomb of the First Emperor of Qin was discovered, the diggers found thousands of terracotta warriors, horses, and chariots standing in formation in big chariots in front of the tomb itself. The Emperor apparently had made enough enemies on earth that he decided he eneded his army with him in heaven, so he took it with him. Each warrior, while built on a few generic body bases, has unique elements: the head, the weapons, the hairstyle, etc. Enough to indicate that each one was meant to represent a specific person in his army, whether general, officer, or lowly infantry. Quoting Wikipedia, "Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits."
This is the 1/3 scale replica: each warrior, made in Xi'an near the original tomb, stands in place where he stands in the tomb site.
You can see how they differ here in the details of their faces, clothes, and the way they stand. Keep in your mind that each of these is most likely a portrait of a specific man alive at the time of the First Emperor of Qin, in 210 BC. These represent individual people from 2400 years ago, which ought to give you a little frisson of something-or-other. It does me.
There's also a 1/3 scale replica of the tomb mound behind them.
The stories say that the Emperor of Qin had models of palaces, towers, and so on built in a cavern, with gems studding the ceiling to represent stars, and rivers of mercury flowing through it. No one knows how true this is, but tests on the soil in the area show higher levels of mercury here than in the rest of the area. The tomb itself has not been excavated, partly out of concern for the mercury levels.
The infantry stands directly in front of the tomb, but the archers stand ready off to the side here.
Their weapons have long since rotted away, being made of organic materials, but you can see where they stood ready to draw and shoot if needed.
The officers of the army stand a little way over. These are half-scale replicas, at about 3 feet tall.
Horses stand ready to draw chariots.
More officials.
On the way out of this area, you go back by the full-scale replicas of the charioteers.
I kind of like that guy on the left. He looks like a happy guy.
The tour continues through a room with some replica weapons.
And then onto a small replica of one of the Imperial residences, from a later era in history.
A little farther on outdoors, a giant aluminum pavilion covers a 1/20 scale model of the Forbidden City. This was the Imperial Palace from the 15th century until the beginning of the 20th. The movie The Last Emperor of China starts here.
This is the army and various palace officials lined up for the Emperor to review. I think it may depict a specific festival or event, but I can't remember for sure.
These are the Empress' quarters and gardens.
The whole Palace area is huge, and even though I'm not a wargamer, it makes me want to game, just to be able to stand to the side and push figurines around with shuffleboard sticks. :)
After you finish the Forbidden Palace tour, you go into a room that has three models that show the intricate architecture of buildings of the period. They look tall, like they're 2 or 3 stories, but they're not: the roofs are high to allow for air circulation and to control the temperature inside during the cold of winter and the heat of summer.
No nails are used in their construction: pegs and joins are instead.
After you finish this room, you go back outside into the courtyard and go around to the small exhibits ringing it. This is a room that contains a model of the city of Suzhou, which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful in China.
There are a few other rooms set up as displays, with replica items. This one is the Emperor's Dining Room, which, as the guide poitned out, is much, much smaller with many fewer dishes than he would have had. :)
After the tour was over, we wandered around a bit and I attempted to make art. :)
Then you leave the area, walking back over the bridge by which you entered.
Perhaps feeding a few fish and turtles on the way.
Out in the parking area, this sculture stands. I have no idea what it is, as the sign that explained it had a cracked plastic cover, and moisture had seeped in and ruined the paper that explained it.
And I leave you with this, one of the lions that guard the pillar.
And that was our trip. Definitely worth the entrance fee.