PF Chang's Horse
The horse symbolizes the original Forbidden City in China, which was built for China's first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.
According to P.F. Chang's website, “Our majestic 11 ft. tall horses grace the entrance to many of our restaurants. By all accounts Qin Shi Haungdi was a pretty horrible guy. Born in 259 BC, he was a warring emperor who is best remembered for burning books and burying scholars alive to avoid comparisons of his reign with the past.
“Three assassination attempts were made in Qin Shihuang’s life, leading him to become paranoid and obsessed with immortality. He died in 210 BC, while on a trip to the far eastern reaches of his empire in an attempt to procure an elixir of immortality from Taoist magicians, who claimed the elixir was stuck on an island guarded by a sea monster.”
Qin had built himself a city-sized mausoleum, a predecessor to the 13th-century citadel that is known as the Forbidden City. Constructed by 700,000 workers, it was filled with precious treasures and featured rivers of mercury, scenic towers, booby traps and a tomb of poured-in bronze. It was guarded by a so-called “Terracotta Army,” comprised of statues of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses.
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