I visited the Forbidden Gardens on a beautiful New Year's Eve. We arrived at noon but had to wait until the 1pm tour which was a little annoying but we had a video and some exhibits to look at in the meantime. The tour was very interesting - the gardens had thousands of clay replicas shipped in from China to recreate the underground armies of Emperor Qin of China. If you aren't familiar with the story (or if you are) it is an intriguing one and seeing the clay replicas of soldiers and buildings in the "Forbidden City" made me want to learn more about the ancient history of Chinese civilization. It is kind of out in the middle of nowhere but you can get there from Houston in less than an hour.
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