The Forbidden City China

The Forbidden City: Nine Hundred Rooms and Almost No One Explains Them

The Forbidden City (Gugong, or Palace Museum) is the largest palace complex on earth: 980 buildings, around 8,700 rooms, across 72 hectares in central Beijing. It took 14 years and a million workers to build, was completed in 1420, and served 24 emperors across the Ming and Qing dynasties until Puyi abdicated in 1912. The last emperor actually continued living in the Inner Court until 1924, which is a detail that does not get enough attention given how modern the outer world already was by then.

How the Complex Is Organised

The Forbidden City is divided by a central axis running north-south. You enter from Tiananmen Gate to the south and exit through the Gate of Divine Prowess to the north (where Jingshan Park waits across the road for the best elevated view back over the rooflines). The southern half is the Outer Court, which held the major ceremonial halls. The northern half is the Inner Court, which was the private living quarters.

Most visitors walk straight up the central axis and miss almost everything interesting. The side pavilions, the Western Palaces where imperial concubines lived, the Clock Exhibition Hall (full of extraordinary 18th and 19th-century European and Chinese timepieces, some of them automated figures that write calligraphy), and the Treasure Gallery are all off the central path and all significantly less crowded than the main sequence of halls.

The Main Halls

The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest wooden structure in China, at 35 metres high. It was used for major ceremonies: enthronements, winter solstice rituals, the emperor’s birthday. The throne inside is the Dragon Throne. Standing in the courtyard in front of it and imagining the space filled with prostrated officials is not difficult. The scale is designed to be intimidating and it succeeds.

The three main halls (Supreme Harmony, Central Harmony, Preserving Harmony) are often grouped together and dispatched quickly. They deserve more time than they usually get. The ceiling of the Hall of Supreme Harmony has a wooden coiled dragon directly above the throne that is among the most technically accomplished wood carvings in the complex.

The Clock Exhibition Hall

This is legitimately the highlight for many visitors and barely anyone knows about it. In the northeastern section of the complex, it houses around 90 timepieces collected or gifted to the court, many from British and French makers in the 18th century. Several are fully operational and demonstrated on a schedule (check at the entrance for current demonstration times). The automated figures, tiny enamelled figures who write Chinese characters with ink-loaded brushes when the mechanism runs, are extraordinary objects.

Practical Details

Entry is 60 yuan in peak season (April to October), 40 yuan off-peak. The Clock Exhibition Hall and Treasure Gallery charge separate small admission fees (10-20 yuan each). Book tickets online at the official website (en.dpm.org.cn) in advance. The Forbidden City caps daily visitors at 80,000 and sells out on Beijing public holidays.

Opening hours are 08:30-17:00 in summer and 08:30-16:30 in winter. Allow a minimum of three hours for a basic visit. Five hours gives you time for the side pavilions.

Do not enter from the north gate (Gate of Divine Prowess) if you want to see everything in logical order. The main entrance is Tiananmen Gate from Tiananmen Square.

Around the Forbidden City

Jingshan Park directly north gives elevated views over the rooflines, best at golden hour in late afternoon. The Drum Tower and Bell Tower are 2 km north and worth visiting for historical context. Wangfujing pedestrian street for food is 15 minutes east by foot.

For Peking duck, Da Dong on Nanxincang Street is well-regarded without being the most expensive option in the city. For dumplings, the Din Tai Fung on Wangfujing is reliable if you want consistency. For actual Beijing street food, the Donghuamen Night Market two minutes from Wangfujing is mostly tourist theatre now; better to find a hutong neighbourhood and eat where residents eat.

The hutongs west of the Forbidden City (around Nanluogu Xiang, though it has become very touristy, and the quieter lanes branching off it) are the best way to understand what Beijing looked like before the mid-20th century cleared so much of it away.