This little dragon it's a little souvenir I picked up at Forbidden Gardens, a Chinese museum-attraction at Katy Texas that, amongst other things, includes a 1/3rd replica from the tomb of emperor Qin Shi Huang-di along with his terracota warriors and a 1/20th replica of the Forbidden city in Beijing. Unfortunately, this place is about to disappear.
It's a shame really how sometimes progress gets in the way of beautiful things, yet we see it ever day: parks transformed into stores, historic buildings turned into parking lots and in this case, museums turned into highways.
It is sad, but I also understand need for new developments (I think the people that are going to save hours of comute with the grand parkway expansion might not miss Forbidden Gardens all that much) and I understand that everything happens because there's a reason. It's justified, but sad nevertheless.
So, today I went to pay my respects and say my final goodbyes. It is only the second time I visit (I wanted to video record the great explanations from the tour guide) but already the place seemed so different: doors closed, items on sale, statues missing, etc.
The final date is set: February 18th 2011 will be the last "regular day" of operations, followed by a 3 day "giant garage sale" to get ready to leave the place.
I took a bunch of pics that I haven't had time to process so this won't be the last time I write about this place. It was something really unique that will be missed and at least I'll try to help keep the memory of some of it online.
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