Forbidden City

Officially known as the Palace Museum, this magnificent complex is a grand monument to the 24 emperors who ruled from its halls over a period of almost 500 years. The symbolic center of the Chinese universe, the palace was the exclusive domain of the imperial court from its completion in 1420 until the last of the emperors was forced to abdicate at the beginning of the 20th century. The modern world intruded in 1949, when the public were finally admitted through the palace gates.

  • North of Tian’an Men Square

  • 8511 7048

  • Subway: Tian’an Men West or Tian’an Men East

  • Open: Apr 16–Oct 15 8:30am–5pm daily. Oct 16–Apr 15 8:30am–4:30pm daily. Last entry one hr before closing

  • Admission: Apr 1–Oct 31 ¥60. Nov 1–Mar 31 ¥40. There are additional charges for certain halls

  • Audio guides are available for ¥40 (plus ¥100 deposit)

  • www.dpm.org.cn


The Last Emperor

Pu Yi, ascended the throne at the age of three in 1908, but his brief reign was brought to an early end in 1912 by a new Republican government. The young ex-emperor continued to live in the Forbidden City until ejected in 1924. He was later imprisoned under the Communists, until Mao granted him amnesty in 1959. He died in 1967, after working for seven years as a gardener.


Glazed panel with lotus and mandarin ducks

There are various snack kiosks near the ticket office, and one restaurant inside the Forbidden City.


Most visitors buy their tickets at the Meridian Gate, but to avoid the lengthy queues you could enter the Forbidden City from the north via the Gate of Divine Prowess, and visit in reverse.


NOTE

For more places of interest in the vicinity of the Forbidden City see Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City

Top 10 Features
  1. Meridian Gate

    In Chinese it is the Wu Men. This is the traditional entrance to the palaces. From the balcony the emperor would review his armies and perform ceremonies marking the start of the new lunar year.

  2. Golden Water

    Five marble bridges, symbolizing the five cardinal virtues of Confucianism, span the Golden Water, which flows from west to east in a course designed to resemble the jade belt worn by the court officials.

  3. Gate of Supreme Harmony

    The fourth and final great gate gives access into the Outer Court, the heart of the Forbidden City. The gate is guarded by two large bronze lions, classic imperial symbols of power and dignity. The lion on the right is the male; the one on the left with a cub under its foot is the female.

    Bronze guardian lion
  4. Hall of Supreme Harmony

    Raised on a triple tier of marble terraces, this largest of halls houses a sandalwood throne, used in the coronations of 24 emperors.

  5. Hall of Preserving Harmony

    The most spectacular aspect of this hall is the great carved ramp on the north side, sculpted with dragons and clouds, and made from a single piece of marble weighing more than 200 tons.

  6. Gate of Heavenly Purity

    The only building in the whole palace not to have been burnt down at least once, and thus the oldest hall of all. It is the boundary between the Outer Court (official) and Inner Court (private).

  7. Inner Court

    The Inner Court is more intimate than the formal Outer Court, because this is where the emperor, empress, and the many concubines actually lived.

  8. Imperial Garden

    The emperor Qianlong wrote that, “Every ruler, when he has finished his public duties, must have a garden in which he can stroll, and relax his heart.” This formal garden, the oldest in the Forbidden City, has two beautiful pavilions.

  9. Western Palaces

    Much of the western flank of the complex is off limits, but some of the halls neighboring the Inner Court are visitable, including the Palace of Eternal Spring, where trompe-l’oeil paintings at the ends of passageways make them appear infinitely extended.

  10. Eastern Palaces

    East of the Inner Court are smaller halls where the emperor’s harem lived. Also here is the well down which the Empress Cixi had her nephew’s favorite concubine thrown.

Forbidden City Collections

Imperial throne
  1. Musical instruments

    In true imperial fashion, the more lavish the musical entertainment, the more glory it reflected on the emperor. Court musicians used gongs of all sizes and guqins (zithers), wooden flutes, and heavy bronze bells adorned with dragons, as well as the unusual sheng, a Sherlock Holmes-style pipe with reeds of different lengths sprouting from the top. The collection is displayed in the Silver Vault of the Imperial Palace, on the west side of the Outer Court.

  2. Scientific instruments

    Enlightened Qing emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) appointed Europeans as court officials, and instructed his imperial workshops to copy Western scientific instruments. These included the first calculator, astronomical and drawing tools, sun dials, moon dials, and a special table with measurements and scientific notations scratched on each side leaf, made especially for the imperial studies. The instruments are part of the Imperial Treasures of the Ming and Qing Dynasties exhibit, on the west side of the Inner Court.

  3. Stone drums

    The Hall of Moral Cultivation holds the palace’s collection of stone drums. These are enormous tom-tom shaped rocks that bear China’s earliest stone inscriptions dating back to 374 BC. These ideographic carvings are arranged in four-character poems, which commemorate the glorious pastureland and successful animal husbandry made possible by the Emperor Xiangong’s benevolence.

  4. Jewelry

    Also in the Hall of Moral Cultivation are three of the six halls of jewelry (head north for rooms four through six), including the only hall to display actual jewelry rather than agate cups or jade sculpture. Hall number three has thick jade rings, lapis lazuli court beads, elaborate headdresses made of gold filigree phoenixes, and surprisingly, jadeite Christian rosary beads.

    Butterfly brooch
  5. Beijing Opera

    The pleasantly named Pavilion of Cheerful Melodies sports a three-story stage large enough to accommodate one thousand actors. It was once rigged with pulleys and trapdoors to create dramatic entrances for supernatural characters. The exhibits include a behind-the-scenes model stage, as well as costumes, instruments, scripts, and cast lists. There are screens showing reconstructions of old court performances.

    Nine-dragon screen
  6. Jade

    The Hall of Quintessence was once where dowager empresses went to die; it now exhibits jade artifacts spanning thousands of years. Pieces range from simple cups and ladles to enormous and intricate sculptures of Buddhas in traditional scenic settings. The Chinese considered working this “hard” stone a metaphor for character development and the pursuit of perfection.

  7. Daily life of the concubines

    Every three years, court officials would select girls between the ages of 13 and 17 to join the eight ranks of imperial concubines. The Yonghe Pavilion exhibits clothing, games, herbal medicine, and a food distribution chart relating to the young imperial consorts, as well as the all-important “wedding night bed,” which is covered in a richly embroidered red silk decorated with Chinese mythological symbols.

    Imperial wedding bed
  8. Clocks and watches

    Arguably the finest of the many and varied palace collections, the clocks and watches fill the Fengxian Pavilion in the southeastern corner of the eastern Inner Court. The size and creativity involved in some of the pieces – which are primarily European – is astonishing. One particularly inventive model has an automaton clad in European dress frantically writing eight Chinese characters on a scroll, which is being unrolled by two other mechanical figures.

    Ornate carriage clock
  9. Ceramics

    In a ceramic salute to the Silk Road, several linked halls around the Inner Court display tomb figurines from the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–906) dynasties. Still caked with earth, statues range from six inches to three feet (15 cm to 1m) in height, and depict overweight court ladies, Buddhas on elephants, and floppy-humped camels. A film offers some background on the pottery finds.

  10. Empress Cixi

    The Xianfu Pavilion is a memorial to the Empress Cixi’s devious rise to power, as well as to the great lady’s imperial extravagances, which so nearly crippled her country. Clothes, jewelry, embroidered socks, imported perfume, jade and ivory chopsticks, and pictures of clothes and food form the bulk of the exhibits. There are also examples of the empress’s calligraphic skills in the form of painted wall hangings.

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NOTE

For more details see Beijing museums

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