Forbidden City 100th Anniversary – 2025 Latest Travel Tips

In 2025, the Palace Museum ( Forbidden City) will usher in the 100th anniversary of its founding. In order to celebrate this important moment, the Forbidden City, especially in the Zhai Palace, held a ‘Jade out of Kungang – Qing Dynasty Palace Hetian Jade Culture Special Exhibition’, which is not only the first exhibition in 2025, but also the first exhibition of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Forbidden City. Therefore, specially prepared for you a 2025 Forbidden City tour guide super detailed version!

How to book tickets for the Forbidden City? What are the opening hours?
1, the Forbidden City is closed on Mondays (except legal holidays);
2, the Forbidden City does not sell tickets on the day, all visitors must be real name reservation to visit, should be visited before the seventh day 20:00 through the official channels of the Forbidden City, ‘the Palace Museum’ WeChat applet booking (foreign tourists can also be booked through the official website of the Forbidden City).
Tips for grabbing tickets in peak season, the ticket release time is about 40 minutes, about every 10-15 minutes to release the tickets.
3, Daily tickets are divided into two time slots: morning and afternoon:
For those who book the morning session, the earliest entry time is 8:30am and the latest entry time is 12:00pm.
For visitors booking the afternoon session, the earliest entry time is 11:00, the latest entry time is 15:30 (extended by 30 minutes in peak season)
Closing time is 16:30 (extended by 30 minutes in peak season)
4, Off-peak season time period: peak season is 1 April – 31 October, off-season is 1 November – 31 March of the following year.

How many entrances to the Forbidden City? How to get to the Forbidden City?
About the entrance: the only entrance to the Forbidden City is now the Noon Gate! Noon Gate! Noon Gate! Important things to say three times! Because a taxi to the wrong door often happens!
Traffic way
If you choose to take a taxi, direct taxi positioning to the Forbidden City’s Donghuamen or Xihuamen, get off the car and walk along the crowd of about 500 metres to reach the Noon Gate ticket gate;
If you choose the underground, you can come out from the Tiananmen East Station B exit, walk east about 800 metres to reach the Donghuamen, and then follow the crowd to walk 500 metres to arrive at the Noon Gate ticket gate (but be careful, there are a lot of online temple shortcut strategy, but only Tiananmen East Station off the tourists can choose).

Can I store my luggage when visiting the Forbidden City?
Luggage can be stored at the Forbidden City! The bag storage office is located in the west side of the Duanmen Square Visitor Centre storage, bag pick-up office is located in the east side of the square outside the Shenwumen Gate, the north side of the square outside the Donghuamen Gate. After storage, the staff will help you send your luggage to one of the two exits, and you can choose the place to pick up your bag when you store it! The Forbidden City is very large, carrying luggage around the Forbidden City is very difficult! Be sure to listen to advice! Pack light and bring as little as you can!
Tips for bag storage: suitcases, large parcels of 20 inches and above can be stored; however, cash, watches, computers, gold and silver jewellery and other valuables, as well as a variety of flammable, explosive, fragile and breakable items are prohibited items.
Ticketing Tips: The ticket gate is divided into big bag ticket gate and small bag and no bag ticket gate, big bag ticket gate queuing time is very long, it is recommended that you carry a small bag or no bag, so as to reduce the queuing time.

How to choose the exit of the Forbidden City?
Choose the exit of the Forbidden City according to the next tourist attraction! For example, if you are going to the Temple of Heaven next stop, you will exit from Donghuamen, and if you are going to Jingshan Park next stop, you will exit from Shenwumen! You can’t take a taxi around the Forbidden City, so you must choose your exit carefully! Choose the wrong direction will be more walking.
It is recommended to choose the Shenwumen out, because the opposite is the Jingshan Park, to reach the highest point of the Jingshan Park – Wanchun Pavilion, you can overlooking the entire Forbidden City of the whole picture, very spectacular!

Do I need to make a separate booking for the Forbidden City’s Hall of Treasures and Hall of Clocks?
Be sure to remember! These are the only two venues in the Forbidden City that require a separate reservation, but it’s okay if you don’t have one because you can make up tickets on the spot at the entrance to the Hall of Treasures and the Hall of Watches for 10 RMB a piece! It’s super easy, but ticket sales stop at 15:30, so be sure to check the time!

Do I still need to make reservations for the other special exhibitions at the Palace?
In addition to clocks and treasures, all special exhibitions in the Forbidden City can be scanned on site to register to enter! The staff at the entrance will say you can’t go in without a ticket, so don’t be a fool and just walk away, because you can make an appointment on site!

Do I need a guide to visit the Forbidden City?
If you know the history of the Forbidden City very well, you can not ask a guide, combined with the Forbidden City’s guide map of their own tour; but if you do not understand the history of the Forbidden City, it is strongly recommended that you ask a local guide, so that you can hear the history of the Forbidden City and culture of the professional explanations and to avoid getting lost in the Forbidden City problem, the Forbidden City is really too big, the poor sense of direction is very easy to get lost.

Is there a restaurant in the Forbidden City?
There are many restaurants in the Forbidden City for tourists to choose from, which can meet the needs of different visitors’ tastes. According to my own dining experience and the majority of tourists, it is recommended to go to the Forbidden City Ice Cellar restaurant, Wangmu beef rice, old Beijing fried noodles and other special dishes loved by tourists.
The Forbidden City Ice Cellar was built in the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period, when it was designed for the Palace to hide ice for the summer heat food system. It has a history of more than 300 years, and the stone tiles on the walls are all antiques.

Write at the end:
In the Palace Museum’s centennial birthday, the exhibition from the collection of more than 19,000 pieces of jade in the Qing Dynasty, selected 258 representative of the Qing Dynasty Palace Hetian jade masterpieces, of which 28 first-class cultural relics, 130 pieces of cultural relics on display to the public for the first time. White jade moon order group pendant, Qianlong white jade pan dragon button ‘Qing Dynasty ordered treasure’, the Qing Palace old collection of jade Go, white jade evil Han Dynasty, green jade basin jade lotus bonsai exhibits such as this exhibition must hit the fine artifacts.
The exhibition is open to visitors from 7 January 2025 to 4 January 2026, and can be booked free of charge after booking tickets to the Palace.