The Palace Museum (Forbidden City)
Completed in the 18th year of Ming Yongle (1420), the imperial palace where 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived and ruled, formerly the Forbidden City: covering 720,000 sq m with over 8,700 rooms, the world's largest and best-preserved wooden palace complex
Visitor info
- Opening hours
- 08:30-17:00 peak season · off-season last tickets 16:30 · closed Mon
- Ticket
- CNY 60 peak season / CNY 40 off-season (Treasure Gallery and Clock Gallery CNY 10 each)
Price is indicative — final quote on inquiry.
Completed in the 18th year of Ming Yongle (1420), the imperial palace where 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived and ruled, formerly the Forbidden City: covering 720,000 sq m with over 8,700 rooms, it is the world's largest and best-preserved wooden palace complex. The three great halls on the central axis (Taihe/Zhonghe/Baohe) form the ceremonial core; in the rear court, the Qianqing Palace and the Six Eastern and Western Palaces were the living quarters of emperors and empresses; the Imperial Garden, Hall of Mental Cultivation, the Nine-Dragon Wall in the Treasure Gallery and the Clock Gallery each have their highlights. The Palace Museum was founded in 1925; its 1.86 million-plus items (sets) rank first among Chinese museums. All tickets must be reserved online, and peak-season slots require booking days in advance—the "Forbidden City dash" has become a travel buzzword.
Getting there: Metro Line 1, Tiananmen East Station
Photos
More in Beijing
- Summer Palace
Kunming Lake, the Long Corridor and Marble Boat of the imperial resort.
- The Forbidden City
The world's largest palace complex, 9,999 rooms of Ming and Qing emperors.
- Mutianyu Great Wall
The restored, less-crowded Great Wall section with a toboggan descent.
- Temple of Heaven
Where emperors prayed for harvest; morning tai chi in the cypress park.
- Tiananmen Square
One of the world's largest city squares, about 880 m long north to south and able to hold a million people—the core space of Beijing's Central Axis: the founding ceremony of the PRC was held here on October 1, 1949; the Monument to the People's Heroes stands at the center, the Great Hall of the People on the west, and on the east the China...
- Jingshan Park
A small hill park directly facing the Forbidden City's Shenwu Gate, built in the Ming Wanli era from moat-digging earth and palace rubble, formerly Coal Hill: Wanchun Pavilion on the central peak is the high point of Beijing's Central Axis—the only vantage for a panorama of the Forbidden City's golden roofs, looking south to the palace and north to the Bell and Drum Towers