Everywhere you go there are these lions (or tigers -- I can't remember which) but they are very revered to the Chinese. These golden ones are in the Forbidden City. One is a male and one is a female. The male (2nd photo) always has a ball under it's paw to symbolize prosperity and the female (1st photo) always has a cub under it's paw to symbolize posterity. At the main entrance to the neighborhood where Heidi lives, there are two of these statues atleast twice as big as these two but not golden.
"There are more than a thousand hornless drazon heads that are in the walls of the terraces all around the Forbidden City. They were carved as waterspouts to drain all the central terraces. The Chinese dragon brings water and thus prosperity; the horned five-clawed dragon was the symbol of the emporer." quoted from the May 2008 Nat'l Geographic magazine map.
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