Forbidden City (Palace Museum) 故宫博物院

The Palace Museum is a distinctive museum housed in the former imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, known to many as the Forbidden City. Founded in 1925, it opened the gates of a royal residence that had witnessed six centuries of change. Its palace complex is described as the world’s largest and best-preserved group of wooden palace buildings, and it stands as a source of pride for the Chinese nation and a precious cultural heritage for all people.

The museum holds more than 1.8 million pieces and sets of artworks and artifacts, many inherited from the Qing imperial household. Its collections range across painting, calligraphy, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, rare books, archives, jade and decorative crafts. Visitors can follow the central axis through grand halls and quieter inner courts, seeing ceremonial spaces such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, residential palaces such as Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace, and the East and West Six Palaces. Some halls display imperial collections, while others keep interior settings from the late imperial period.

Covering 1,120,000 square meters, the site also includes walls, gates, corner towers and a moat. A walk here offers a direct encounter with imperial architecture, court life and the long cultural memory preserved within the palace.

Don't miss

• Central axis from Meridian Gate to the imperial gardens
• Hall of Supreme Harmony, the palace's largest and highest-ranked building
• Qianqing Palace, Kunning Palace and the East and West Six Palaces
• Imperial collections of paintings, ceramics, jade, textiles and archives
• Corner towers and moat surrounding the palace complex

Visiting tips

Book ahead through the Palace Museum’s official WeChat mini program or website; tickets are not sold on the day. Foreign visitors need to provide passport numbers when booking online, and daily visitor numbers are capped at 40,000.