Pit #2 has more experienced military and cavalry.

They're gray and blackened from a fire 5 years after the Emperor's death. A General had his troops break in to, loot and burn this pit. It burned underground for 3 months.

Pit #3 didn't have many terra-cotta men. It was the command center.

Terra-cotta horses and even chariots were buried with the soldiers.

Now to a different century...The Forbidden City. This is the first gate. It's past a moat and there are 2 more gates behind it.

The Forbidden City was home to Emperors from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

It was called the Forbidden City because only Emperors and people associated with them (family, concubines, servants, etc.) were allowed in to the city. Once you were in the city, you weren't allowed out.

The city consists of 800 buildings with 8,886 rooms. The real city in China covers 720,000 square meters.

The Royal Garden.

A close-up of the garden.

There were SO many buildings I can't remember what they were all for. They did tell us as a general rule, the green roofs were where family and concubines lived. The orange roofs were general buildings and temples.

The Summer Palace. The Emperor never stayed there but the Empress Dowager went there often and even kept her marble boat there. They told us that the marble boat did float.