The Palace Museum, formerly known as the Forbidden City, is located in the center of Beijing's central axis and is the site of the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The Forbidden City is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relics protection unit and a national 5A-level scenic spot.
The total area of the Forbidden City is 720,000 square meters, the construction area is about 150,000 square meters, there are more than 70 large and small palaces and courtyards, the palace city wall is 10 meters high, and there is a 52-meter-wide moat outside the city, which can be described as a veritable "city within a city". The layout of the Forbidden City adopts a symmetrical design as a whole, giving people a solemn and formal feeling, and the palace architecture adopts the red walls and yellow tiles of the highest system in ancient times, and the overall architectural style is serious and gorgeous, majestic and exquisite, for tourists who like Chinese historical buildings, this is definitely the most unmissable attraction. It is worth mentioning that the golden glazed tiles of the Forbidden City are places that some tourists will overlook, and the ridges and corners of the palace roof are often made of some exquisite designs, and various ancient Chinese legendary Rui beasts crawl here to show the inviolable majesty of the royal family.
The Forbidden City has four gates: the main gate is the noon gate, which corresponds to the north gate Shenwu Gate, the east and west are the Donghua Gate and the Xihua Gate respectively, and the four corners of the city wall each have a 27.5-meter-high corner tower to guard the four directions. The interior of the Forbidden City can be divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The outer dynasty was the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties handled government affairs and held ceremonies, and it was the emperor's "office area", and the main buildings were the Taihe Palace, the Zhonghe Hall and the Baohe Palace. Since the Palace Museum is a one-way tour from the noon gate to enter and the Shenwu gate to exit, the three major halls of the Taihe Gate are the first stop of the Forbidden City tour. Among them, the Taihe Hall is the "Jinluan Palace" that we are familiar with, with an area of 2,377 square meters, which is the largest area of the Forbidden City. The Taihe Hall has witnessed the enthronement of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the wedding, the canonization of the queen and various large-scale festival ceremonies, the building is majestic, resplendent and brilliant, and it is the place where tourists like to take pictures the most.
After passing through the Qianqing Gate, you came to the inner court where the emperor and his concubines lived. Friends who like to watch Qing palace dramas can find a lot of familiar buildings here. After the inner court, the three palaces are the Qianqing Palace, the Jiaotai Palace and the Kunning Palace, and the emperor and empress live here. The east and west palaces on both sides are the residences of the concubines, and the well-known "Shufangzhai" can be found in the west six palaces, but in fact, it is mainly used as a place for the emperor's banquet and play. After the last three palaces of the inner court, there is the imperial garden where the emperor and his concubines walk.
Although people are still accustomed to calling it the "Forbidden City", in fact, from 1925, the Forbidden City was transformed into the "Palace Museum". Built on the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the museum has the richest collection of ancient Chinese relics in China, including but not limited to 25 categories of paintings, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and jade. Friends who are interested in the treasures of clocks and watches can go to the Treasures Hall in Ningshougong District and the Clock Hall in Fengxian Hall to visit, and the tickets for the visit need to be purchased separately, both for 10 yuan a piece.
However, it is a pity that the speed of each exhibition in the Palace Museum is slow, and only a very small number of exhibits are displayed at a time, and it takes 913 years for 160,000 pieces of ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphy to be fully exhibited once in a single painting and calligraphy museum, and the well-known "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" in China will only be exhibited once every ten years. For ordinary tourists, instead of positioning the Palace Museum as a "museum", it is better to experience the majestic architecture of the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the historical events that took place behind the palace walls.
Tickets for the Forbidden City are 60 yuan/person in the peak season and 40 yuan/person in the off-season, but the main point is that from October 10, 2017, the Forbidden City officially implemented the whole network ticket sales, and it is recommended that tourists who want to visit the city buy the required tickets online in advance. In addition, the Forbidden City has also launched a series of Forbidden City peripheral apps, such as the Forbidden City Exhibition, the Forbidden City Community, the Daily Forbidden City, the Forbidden City Ceramics Museum, and the Qing Dynasty Emperor's Costumes, which are both practical and interesting, and are essential software for Palace Museum fans.
The Forbidden City is located in the center of Beijing, close to the Wangfujing business district on the right and Tiananmen Square in the south, which is one of the most crowded places in Beijing, and there are few parking spaces, so it is not recommended for tourists to visit the Forbidden City by car.
Fare:
Peak season from April 1 to October 31, each ticket is RMB 60 (excluding the Treasure Hall and the Watch Hall)
Low season from 1 November to 31 March of the following year, each ticket is RMB 40 (excluding the Treasure Hall and the Watch Hall)
Opening Hours:
Peak season: 8:30 a.m. ~ 5:30 p.m. (Last admission: 4:10 p.m.)
Low season: 8:30 a.m. ~ 5:00 p.m. (Last admission: 3:40 p.m.)
