Forbidden Gardens Site, Texas

Forbidden Gardens was a massive recreation of a number of Imperial Chinese historic sites, built in 1997 on the plains of Texas by Ira P. H. Poon, a wealthy Hong Kong businessman. Included in this sprawling attraction were 6,000 terra-cotta soldiers at 1/3 scale, arrayed as they were found in China in 1974, when Emperor Qin's third century BC tomb was excavated. Also at Forbidden Gardens was a replica of the Forbidden City in Beijing at 1/20 scale, with hundreds of figurines, under a 40,000 square canopy. In  2011, the site was closed, allegedly to allow a new freeway to be built. The individual pieces were sold, and the site became a barren, contemporary archeological site, awaiting the bulldozers.

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