Forbidden City, Beijing

Never in my wildest dreams that I will step foot in this historical place, The Forbidden City.

Ever since my younger age, I always love watching Chinese Kung Fu movies from series of Once Upon A Time In China, Ip Man up to Tai Chi Hero.

I always admire the structure of the old Chinese empire, and feel amaze how these Forbidden City are earthquake-proof.

This is my once in a life-time opportunity to not just see from outside but able to explore the whole area of this Forbidden City, including the Treasure Gallery and the Clock n Watch Gallery; well except for the Hidden Garden in which I was not even aware of it’s existence until a day after my visited the City.

For 1st timer, visiting this Palace can be quite tricky, finding the place is easy, it is right in the middle of Beijing, however looking for the entrance can take hours, plus all the long queues.  There are at least 2 long queues that you have to go through, 1st one is the Passport verification and another queue is for tickets verification.  So if you have weak legs and travelling with elderly/children, I would advise you to just join a tour group.

I walked a total of 14,495 steps and climb 16 floors on that day.  An achievement for someone who rarely exercise like me.  But I didn't feel tired at all!  Maybe because I was too excited and the weather was so nice and cold on that day.

Yes, I don't mind coming back to Beijing and bring my family along to see all the historital places. Beijing is totally not what I expected, it is a beautiful place to visit, clean, organise, modern, huge and pleasant; well except for the toilets in public place (include shopping malls) really need lots of improvement.

Thank you Beijing for the wonderful memory and the nice blue sky throughout my visit.  Consider yourself extremely lucky if don’t see haze in this part of the world.

Forbidden City (Palace Museum / 故宫)

Admission Fee: CNY 40 (Nov 1 to Mar 31); CNY 60 (Apr 1 to Oct 31)

CNY 10 for the Treasure Gallery; CNY 10 for the Clock and Watch Gallery

Opening Hours: (Closed on Mondays)

8:30 to 16:30 (Nov 1 – Mar 31); tickets not available after 15:30 and last entry at 15:40.

8:30 to 17:00 (Apr 1- Oct 31); tickets not available after 16:00 and last entry at 16:10.

Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 ha.  The Forbidden City limits the daily number of visitors to 80,000, it is recommended that visitors book tickets in advance online at http://gugong.228.com.cn (only Chinese version available). Foreign visitors are required to provide passport numbers and full names when book tickets online. For details, visit http://en.dpm.org.cn/visit/tickets/.  If  you do not have online reservation, please go in the morning, there are usually tickets available in the morning, no guarantee.