The Forbidden City

Table of Con­tents Show

Overview:

The world’s largest Impe­r­i­al Palace, the For­bid­den Palace has stood for more than 600 years and reflects the pow­er, beau­ty and his­to­ry of the Great Chi­nese Dynas­ties, with 24 Emper­ors, includ­ing those of the Ming and Qing dynas­ties hav­ing not only called the For­bid­den City home, but also won­dered it’s immense and stun­ning halls and palaces to host feasts, cel­e­bra­tions and of course ruled and imple­ment­ed deci­sions that have defined his­to­ry.

Hav­ing only been opened to the pub­lic in 1925, the For­bid­den City is so named as only Emper­ors, their con­sorts and fam­i­lies and select­ed invit­ed dig­ni­taries were allowed to enter, with the splen­did inner and out­er courts now open to explor­ers who can mar­vel at the archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty and splen­dour of the halls, palaces, court­yards and gar­dens of what was once the polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al heart of Chi­na.

Along­side this, the For­bid­den City, which occu­pies more than sev­en and a half mil­lion square feet in land, con­tains one of the largest muse­ums in the world, which hous­es more than one and a half mil­lion arte­facts that doc­u­ment the cul­ture, prac­tices and his­to­ry of the var­i­ous dynas­ties, mean­ing that a day spent explor­ing this unique, beau­ti­ful and awe-inspir­ing city gives you not just a chance to trav­el back through the sto­ried his­to­ry of the Chi­nese dynas­ties but a chance to expe­ri­ence a tru­ly unique and cap­ti­vat­ing won­der of the world.

Where:

The for­bid­den City sits in the heart of Bei­jing, reflect­ing its past as the home of Emper­ors and the heart of the Chi­nese dynas­ties.

Getting there:

The for­bid­den City is found in the cen­tre of Bei­jing, so the eas­est way to get there is unques­tion­ably by sub­way – which is both cheap and effi­cient.

There are two sub­way lines that will drop you off at the For­bid­den City ‑the first is Sub­way line 1 where you head for the Tianan­men East or west sta­tion or Sub­wya line 2 where you can get off at Qian­men Sta­tion – from either stop it’s then a short walk to the South gate of the For­bid­den City, which is the only gate from which you enter.

The south­ern gate is the Merid­i­an Gate and was once the only gate used by the emper­or and from which you enter into the main court­yard of the For­bid­den City, you then spend the next cou­ple of hours fol­low­ing a south to North route around the For­bid­den cen­tre where you exit at the bril­liant­ly named Gate of Divine Prowess at the north of the For­bid­den Cen­tre – from where you can pro­ceed to the top of the hill at Jing­shan Park for some stun­ning panoram­ic views of the For­bid­den City.

Best time to Visit:

As with vis­it­ing oth­er won­ders in Chi­na, you can expect the For­bid­den City to be packed on both Chi­nese New Year and the May Nation­al Day, so it’s advised to head for the For­bid­den City in either the Autumn – when the Autumn leaves make for stun­ning scenery and the weath­er is mild – or between March – April, when spring offers pleas­ant view­ing with less crowds.


Explore:

The For­bid­den City is the worlds largest palace com­plex at 720,000 square meters – so there’s lots to explore and you could spend a cou­ple of days explor­ing all the palaces, halls, tow­ers archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty of this won­der – and that’s not to men­tion the near­ly one mil­lion pieces of cul­tur­al her­itage items that are found in the many muse­ums, includ­ing the stun­ning Trea­sures of the Palace Muse­um.

How­ev­er as most peo­ple favour and find that a half day trip is enough for the For­bid­den Palace – and as the 9,999 and a half rooms do begin to look sim­i­lar after a while, below are the best top hits to explore and take in at the For­bid­den City:

Fol­low­ing the south to North Route, you’ll enter through the Merid­i­an Gate – which is a stun­ning large front door of the palace – and which was once used and reserved for the emper­or alone, where he would sit to inspect his armies, take tea and ask ques­tions of the ancient stars when alone, this gate is tru­ly stun­ning and once inside be sure to get in one of our top tips – a chance to mount the walls of the For­bid­den City – by head­ing left to the East Pros­per­i­ty Gate from where you can walk along rough­ly one mile of the wall and enjoy a moment of qui­et with no crowds and grab some stun­ning pho­tos look­ing down on the for­bid­den city.

Back from the Merid­i­an Gate – you’ll then come to the Gate of Celes­tial Puri­ty – which splits the For­bid­den City into two dis­tinct sec­tions – the inner and out­er court and acts as the main gate to the For­bid­den City.

The Outer Court:

Once used for cer­e­monies and nation­al affairs, the out­er court has three key dig­ni­tary halls:

The Hall of Supreme Har­mo­ny – with a great name, the hall of the Supreme Har­mo­ny is a huge three sto­ry hall, that fea­tures the amaz­ing Gold­en Car­riage Palace which was once the throne room of emper­ors and marked the place of key cer­e­monies, includ­ing the announc­ing of war, sons and the pass­ing of emper­ors. It fea­tures mem­o­ries of china’s past and provinces and an ancient sun dial as well as bril­liant­ly carved unique mar­ble floors – fit for an emper­or – with the high­light unques­tion­ably being the two metre tall throne, sit­u­at­ed in the mid­dle of the room sur­round­ed by drag­ons.

Hall of Pre­served Har­mo­ny– stand­ing at the end of the Mar­ble Ter­race the hall of Pre­served Har­mo­ny was built in 1420 and then rebuilt in 1765 but retains all of it’s orig­i­nal charm as a place where Emper­ors would host large feasts and ban­quets to mark impor­tant events includ­ing mar­riage, years end and vic­to­ries – and is a tru­ly large and stun­ning hall that no doubt went a long with its beau­ty in help to pre­serve har­mo­ny. For those that head to the For­bid­den City on a rainy day or in win­ter make sure you head here first, as the hall is designed to cre­ate an opti­cal illu­sion of Drag­ons drink­ing and absorb­ing water.

The Hall of Mar­tial Val­our – a place of immense his­to­ry and a tru­ly fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal site, the hall of Mar­i­tal Val­our was the epi­cen­tre of a peas­ant rebel­lion – where the poor broke into the palace and trashed it as well as burn­ing down some of the neigh­bour­ing build­ing, before putting to death. Along­side that the hall was main­ly used as a meet­ing place for less impor­tant meet­ings that didn’t meet the require­ments of the hall of supreme Har­mo­ny – and as an office where main of china’s key his­tor­i­cal moments were record­ed.

The Hall of Cen­tral Har­mo­ny - The small­est of the halls (reflect­ed in its name – is a square wall that inhibits tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese archi­tec­ture and which fea­tures two unique uni­corn sculp­tures sit­ting along­side anoth­er throne that make up parts of and rep­re­sent ancient Chi­nese mythol­o­gy, this hall is qui­eter that the oth­er three but of course just as impres­sive and a real reflec­tion of the pow­er and glo­ry of Chi­nese dynas­ties.

Inner court

The inner court was the liv­ing area of the For­bid­den Palace, for peas­ants and the emper­ors and offers a fas­ci­nat­ing insight in the lives and mind­set of the emper­ors, with three key grand and beau­ti­ful palaces vis­itable for explor­ers:

The Palace of Heav­en­ly Puri­ty – Despite it’s name, the palace of heav­en­ly Puri­ty is a small­er ver­sion of the hall of Supreme Har­mo­ny and act­ed as the Emper­ors sleep­ing Quar­ters – with the items with­in it most­ly being sim­i­lar in design to those in the hall of supreme har­mo­ny, but on a small­er scale. Used as both an offi­cial res­i­dence, for the sign­ing of doc­u­ments and host­ing of meet­ings, the Palace is again a stun­ning exam­ple of Chi­nese archi­tec­ture and beau­ty and for this rea­son also host­ed many offi­cial ban­quets – includ­ing our per­son­al favourite the ban­quet of a thou­sand seniors – and was also used as a place for fall­en Emper­ors to lie in state to allow roy­al respects and mourn­ing to take place.

The Palace / Hall of Union and Peace – The place of union and peace fea­tures an incred­i­ble sin­gle roof struc­ture with a dia­mond pin­na­cle and was a place of offi­cial busi­ness being the site of the sign­ing of many unique and his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments and pieces of leg­is­la­tion – includ­ing some that are still active today.

Although dam­aged by fire and then rebuilt in 1797, the Palace of union and Peace still retains its unique charm, and fea­ture two incred­i­ble pieces of Chi­nese inge­nu­ity – the first being a unique wind-up chim­ing clock built in 1798 that has three tiers and still chimes today and the over being a device con­struct­ed in the same era that was a water clock that drips water to tell the time – in lieu of watch­es – that still works a a time teller today – a true sign of Chi­nese inge­nu­ity.

The Palace of Earth­ly Tran­quil­li­ty — The home of Empress­es from 1368 to 1644 and then the mar­tial bed­room of the Emper­or and his Empress­es, the Palace of Earth­ly Tran­quil­li­ty also served as a tem­ple for sac­ri­fice (not sure it’s some­thing you’d want close to your bed­room) with two sac­ri­fices offered to the Gods each day to please the Emper­ors sup­po­si­tions and in an effort to bring good for­tune to their reigns.

Inside the Palace the walls also reflect the super­sti­tions of the emper­ors, with the major­i­ty of walls paint­ed red, and a series of lanterns and archi­tec­ture which is sup­posed to inspire good for­tune for all evi­dent through the Palace.

Upon leav­ing the Palaces, and after tak­ing a moment to appre­ci­ate their beau­ty and sto­ried his­to­ry you’ll come up to the Impe­r­i­al Gar­den, which once offered views and host­ed enter­tain­ment and par­ties, and which now stands as a quite beau­ti­ful tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese gar­den – com­plete with walk­ways, stones and rivers.

A final not to be missed sight is the Trea­sures of the Palace Muse­um – which is the most famous and com­pletes muse­um in the For­bid­den Cities grounds and sits inside the palace of earth­ly tran­quil­li­ty – and hosts more than a mil­lion pieces of cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance – account­ing for just under a fifth of all the his­tor­i­cal arti­facts still on dis­play in Chi­na.

While an extra and small fee is required to enter the muse­um ($1.50 USD) it’s more than worth if for the many exhi­bi­tions, ancient books from the Emper­ors, art­works and insights that along with the Palaces, Court­yards and Gates of the For­bid­den City let you explore and under­stand this tru­ly unique won­der of the world.


How long to stay:

We’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing 4 hours and mak­ing the For­bid­den City part of a long day explor­ing Down­town Bei­jing includ­ing Tianan­men Square and the Sum­mer Palaces, just be sure to enter from the south gate and exit from the North – if you try and go the oth­er way round it can add extra time onto your trip !

Top Tip:

Make sure to get there ear­ly to avoid crowds on both the sub­way (pre rush hour) and at the for­bid­den city itself, for those want­i­ng a more in-depth tour of the city be sure to hire your guide before arrival – as those at the entrance guide often over­charge and are known to be some­what inac­cu­rate when giv­ing a tour.

Cost & Tickets:

Tick­et to the For­bid­den city includ­ing the inner and out­er court­yard cost 60 CNY (10usd) in April to Octo­ber and drop to 40 CNY (6 usd) in the off peak sea­son of Novem­ber to March

– with it cost­ing an addi­tion­al 10CNY (1.50USD) to vis­it the Trea­sure Gallery – mak­ing access to the For­bid­den City not so for­bid­den in terms of bud­gets!

Just be sure to book your rick­ets in advance online and bring your offi­cial ID with you when you vis­its, as this is a strict require­ment and there is a max­i­mum vis­it num­ber of 80,000 a day, so it’s worth book­ing ear­ly.

Fun Fact:

The For­bid­den city is still for­bid­den with an esti­mat­ed 20% still off lim­its to com­mon­ers, although that’s much bet­ter than the pre­vi­ous full pro­hibiton of entry to all that was asso­ci­at­ed with the city to all but the impe­r­i­al fam­i­lies and invit­ed high offi­cials that an to the 20th cen­tu­ry.

As a bonus fun fact, don’t be sur­prised if you run into some cats as you make you way round the city, — they are now offi­cial res­i­dents of the For­bid­den city – a stay over from the Ming and Qing dynas­ties that kept cats for good luck – and come and go as they please, just be sure not to feed them.

Best photo spot:

We’d rec­om­mend grab­bing pho­tos of the For­bid­den City from two unique spots, first­ly inside the walls – where you can make a small climb by the east pros­per­i­ty gate to get an unblocked and top down view of the exquis­ite place and then after leav­ing the palace by the north gate make the climb up to the top of the hill at Jing­shan Park just oppo­site the For­bid­den City for a panoram­ic top down view of this incred­i­ble for­bid­den won­der.

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