Forbidden Gardens

A real estate tycoon named Ira P. H. Poon from Seattle wanted to teach his teenage children and as many people of Asian descent something of Asian culture besides firecrackers and kung-fu. And he wanted to place his miniature Forbidden City as near a large population of Asians as he could. He looked around San Francisco and Los Angeles first but decided that the third largest population of Asians in and around Houston was his best bet. So in 1997 he began and built the entire 40 acres. The six thousand terra-cotta army in one-third scale are all there and behind the courtyard are 40,000 square feet of tiny model palaces and people: scale models of the Forbidden City of Beijing, The Temple of Heaven, The Calming of the Heart Lodge, and the canal city of Suzhou. It hasn’t been easy keeping everything as constructed. It is nearly all outside and both the weather and vandals have done damage from time to time. But with good people working to keep it pristine it is a great tour and very informative both visually and historically.