The gift shops sell good souvenirs at fixed prices. There are places to buy drinks and snacks inside the Palace Museum but expect touristy prices. Learn more about how to avoid the crowds when traveling in China here.īring plenty of water if you are visiting during the summer or early autumn, as it gets rather hot and there is little shade inside. If you want to beat the crowds, avoid going to the Forbidden City on weekends and Chinese Holidays, and plan your visit for the early morning or the afternoon. If you have a half day or full day to spend exploring the Forbidden City, you can find recommended tour routes and maps at the Palace Museum website. This interesting museum (which costs 10 RMB extra to enter) can be reached by veering off to the right just after walking through the Hall of Preserving Harmony.ĭepending on how in-depth you want to go, it can take up to a full day to explore all of the accessible areas in the Forbidden City. Here, you'll find a well-preserved nine-dragon wall, one of just three of these ancient decorations that remain in China, as well as numerous atmospheric halls and gardens and an impressive, three-story opera house.Īnother worthwhile stop is the impressive Hall of Clocks, which features lavish and intricate timepieces that were gifted to Qing emperors by various European leaders and diplomats from the 17th century on. If you have more time and plan on taking any detours from the central axis, we recommend visiting the northeastern corner of the complex, called the Tranquil Longevity Sector, where the Empress Dowager and the many imperial concubines resided. If you want to make the most of your visit, we strongly recommend hiring a licensed guide to give you a thorough and informative tour of all the Forbidden City's top sights. The complex also features good signage in both English and Chinese, and renting an audio guide will also help explain what you're seeing. Simply click on the icons along the main south-north axis for more information. Since a lot of the Forbidden City's many halls and palaces may look similar, we've provided a tourist map below to get you acquainted with some of its key sights. The central axis usually attracts the most visitors and is crowded during peak hours. This route takes around two hours and allows you to take in all of the most magnificent gates and palaces, including the Meridian Gate ( wumen), the Gate of Supreme Harmony ( taihemen), the Hall of Supreme Harmony ( taihedian), the Gate of Heavenly Purity ( qianqingmen), the Palace of Heavenly Purity ( qianqinggong), the Imperial Garden ( yuhuayuan) and the Gate of Divine Prowess ( shenwumen). Find out how to buy Forbidden City tickets online here.ĭespite its immense size, most visitors stick to the Forbidden City's central axis from the south entrance to the north exit. Starting from October 2, 2017, all visitors to the Forbidden City must book their tickets online. You will need your passport to get a ticket and enter the Palace Museum. Note that before you can enter the Tiananmen area and walk through to the entrance of the Palace Museum, you will need to queue for a security check. Travelers must enter the Palace Museum at the South Gate. The complex consists of an impressive 980 buildings, many of which are now open to the public. The Palace Museum is massive it covers an area of approximately 150,000 square meters and is surrounded by a moat 3,800 meters long and 52 meters wide. Learn more about our guided virtual tour here! It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.įorbidden City Virtual Tour Want to visit the forbidden City spontaneously with a professional live guide? This immense complex, with its seemingly endless red and gold buildings, sits at the heart of Beijing and was the home of the emperors and their households, as well as the center of Chinese government, for almost 500 years, from 1420 of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. In no place are these on better display than the Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum or gu gong in Chinese. As the seat of power for hundreds of years, Beijing is full of examples of imperial extravagance and architectural design.
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