Forbidden City: Tickets, Passport Booking, Opening Hours and Route

You cannot buy a Forbidden City ticket at the gate. The palace, run as the Palace Museum (故宫博物院, Gùgōng Bówùyuàn), sells only real-name tickets booked in advance, with no same-day sales; tickets for any date go on sale seven days before, at 20:00 Beijing time. Foreign visitors book on the museum's international ticket platform with a passport number, and on the day they bring that same passport to the Meridian Gate. An adult ticket costs 60 yuan from April to October and 40 yuan from November to March. The palace is closed on Mondays, except when a Monday is a Chinese public holiday.

The short answer: booking, price and hours

• No tickets on the day. All tickets are real-name and booked ahead; the gate does not sell any.
• When to book. Seven days before your visit, from 20:00 Beijing time. Tickets are valid only for the date you picked.
• Where foreigners book. The international platform at bookingticket.dpm.org.cn, in English and several other languages, with a passport number; it takes international credit cards as well as WeChat Pay and Alipay.
• Price and hours by season. See the table in the tickets section below; the one thing to remember is that last entry is mid-afternoon, so go in the morning.
• Daily limit. 40,000 visitors a day. In spring, summer holidays and Chinese holiday weeks that sells out fast.

If your trip is less than a week away, check availability tonight at 20:00 Beijing time and book the moment your date appears. If it is further out, put a reminder in your phone for 20:00 Beijing time exactly seven days before your chosen day. Beijing is on China Standard Time all year, so from Europe that is early afternoon and from the US East Coast it is the morning of the same day. For where the palace fits into a whole Beijing stay and which other sights still need booking, see our Beijing travel guide.

How to book with a foreign passport

The museum runs two booking routes. Chinese visitors mostly use the "故宫博物院" (Palace Museum) mini program inside WeChat or the Chinese website. Foreign visitors have an easier path: the English website, intl.dpm.org.cn, has a "Book Tickets" button that sends you to the Palace Museum international ticket platform, which works in English, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, French and Chinese. You do not need WeChat for it.

Here is how it goes:

1. Register with an email address. The platform sends a verification code to your inbox to log you in. Do this a day or two before release night so you are not waiting for an email at 20:00.
2. Pick the date and session. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon session. Morning tickets must be scanned at the gate by 12:00; afternoon tickets are let in from 11:00. Morning is the better choice for most people, because the walk takes several hours and last entry is mid-afternoon.
3. Enter each visitor's passport number. One passport can hold only one ticket per day, and every person in your group needs their own passport entered. Type the number exactly as it appears in the passport you will carry — the ticket is checked against that document at the gate.
4. Add the galleries now if you want them. The Treasure Gallery and Clock Gallery tickets are released at the same time as the main ticket and booked the same way.
5. Pay. International credit cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay are accepted.

Once paid, a ticket cannot be changed: not the date, not the session, not the ticket type, and not the name. If your plans change, refund it before midnight the day before your visit. A refund on the day itself counts as a no-show, and three no-shows within 180 days blocks you from booking for 60 days. For problems with the platform, email the museum's ticket team at [email protected] — the easiest channel from abroad. The visitor hotline is +86 400 950 1925, staffed 08:00–20:00 Beijing time; 400 numbers often cannot be reached from a foreign SIM, so check that the call goes through or use the email instead.

The platform is busiest right at 20:00. If a page is slow to load, keep refreshing for a few minutes rather than giving up.

If your date is sold out

The museum does not publish a waiting list or a fallback channel, so your options are practical ones:

• Try the other session. If mornings are gone, an afternoon ticket still gives you time for the main halls if you go in at 11:00.
• Move the palace to another day. Swap it with a Great Wall day. Badaling sells tickets at the gate with a passport, and its ticket windows take cash and foreign cards; Mutianyu is real-name booking but opens 30 days ahead, so you can book it well before your trip. The Temple of Heaven's halls take timed bookings 1–7 days ahead, and you can also buy same-day tickets at the gate when there is space.
• Look again the evening before. Other visitors can refund unused tickets up to midnight the day before the visit, so check the platform again that evening.
• Don't pay a stranger for a "ticket". A ticket is tied to one passport number and cannot be transferred, so a resold ticket in someone else's name will not get you in. Book tickets only on the museum's own platform.
• Tours are not a way around it. Every ticket is real-name and tied to one ID, so a tour only gets you in if a ticket in your passport name has been booked through the museum's own system. A tour helps you understand what you see; it does not create tickets.

If you really cannot get in, Jingshan Park on the north side gives you the full view over the palace roofs for very little money — see the day plan below.

Tickets and opening hours by season

The table has the full set of numbers. What they mean for you:

Which price applies. The Forbidden City switches seasons on 1 November and 1 April: 60 yuan from April to October, 40 yuan from November to March. The price is set by the date of your visit, not the date you book, so a 2 April visit booked on 26 March costs 60 yuan.

Are the two galleries worth it? Each costs 10 yuan on top of the main ticket. The Treasure Gallery is on the quieter eastern side of the palace and gets you into a walled section of courtyards, halls and gardens that many visitors on the central axis never see — it is worth it for anyone staying longer than two hours. The Clock Gallery holds the mechanical clocks the emperors collected and is the one children tend to remember. If you are short on time, pick the Treasure Gallery. Both galleries stop letting people in ten minutes after the main last entry: 16:10 in the high season, 15:40 in the low season.

Discounts and foreign visitors. The museum lists a 20-yuan student ticket for students (undergraduate level and below, aged 18 and over), half price for visitors aged 60 and over with valid ID, and free entry for children aged 6 and under. Free entry for under-18s is written for Chinese citizens (including foreigners with Chinese permanent residence), so do not count on it for a foreign teenager. China has no national rule on whether foreign visitors get concessions; each site decides, and many limit them to Chinese citizens. Check which ticket types the booking platform offers for a passport before choosing a concession, and carry the student card or passport that proves it.

Hours. From April to October the palace is open 8:30–17:00 with last entry at 16:00; from November to March it is open 8:30–16:30 with last entry at 15:30. Last entry is the time that matters. Afternoon tickets let you in from 11:00, and in winter you must be through the gate by 15:30 — so go in early.

Mondays and holidays. The palace is open Tuesday to Sunday. A Monday that is a Chinese public holiday is an open day, with one exception — Chinese New Year's Eve, when it stays shut. The museum may also close at short notice, so check the visit page on the museum's English website the day before. Public holidays are also the most crowded days of the year at the palace; if your dates touch the October holiday week or Chinese New Year, read our Golden Week guide before booking.

From the Meridian Gate to the north exit: route and timing

The visit runs one way, from south to north. The Meridian Gate (午门, Wǔmén) on the south side is the only entrance, and you leave by the Gate of Divine Prowess (神武门, Shénwǔmén) on the north side or the East Glorious Gate (东华门, Dōnghuámén) on the east side. There is no turning back to the Meridian Gate and no exit there, so plan to come out at the north or east end.

At the gate. Bring the original passport you booked with — not a photocopy, not a photo of it. You go through a security check, then the ticket gate checks your ID, with face recognition used to help. Before you even reach the Meridian Gate, you pass through the security around Tiananmen, so allow at least half an hour from the metro to the ticket gate on a busy morning.

The size of it. The palace grounds are 961 metres from south to north and 753 metres from east to west — about 720,000 square metres inside a 10-metre wall and a 52-metre-wide moat. Walking straight from the Meridian Gate to the north gate is close to a kilometre on stone paving, and you will walk two or three times that once you step off the central line. Wear proper shoes.

The central axis (about 2 hours). This is the route nearly everyone takes, and it covers the buildings people come to see:

1. Meridian Gate and the Gate of Supreme Harmony. Through the entrance you cross a wide courtyard with a curving stream and five marble bridges.
2. The three great halls of the outer court. The Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿, Tàihé Diàn) is the largest building in the palace and sits on a three-level white marble terrace. Behind it are the smaller Hall of Central Harmony and Hall of Preserving Harmony. This is where state ceremonies were held. You look into the halls from their doorways, so expect a crowd at the front of each one; wait a minute and it moves.
3. The inner court. Past the Gate of Heavenly Purity, the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility were the living quarters of the emperor and empress. The spaces are smaller and more personal than the outer court.
4. The Imperial Garden. Old cypress trees, rock piles and small pavilions at the north end, just before the exit at the Gate of Divine Prowess.

Adding the side sections (3–4 hours). The side courtyards are where the palace stops feeling like a parade ground. On the west side, the Six Western Palaces were the homes of imperial consorts and are laid out like a small town of courtyards. On the east side, the Treasure Gallery takes you through the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and its garden, and the Clock Gallery is also on the east side, closer to the center. A good order: central axis to the inner court, then the western palaces, then cross east for the Treasure Gallery, and leave by the north gate. Exhibitions and closed sections rotate, so follow the signs on the day rather than a fixed checklist.

How long to plan. Two hours is enough for the central axis at a steady pace. Three to four hours covers the axis plus one or two side sections, which is what we would plan for a first visit. A full day is possible if you like museums and pace yourself with breaks.

Guides and audio guides. Audio guides can be rented inside; ask the staff once you are through the ticket gate. If you want a person to explain the history as you walk, a small-group guided tour from GetYourGuide or Klook is the easy option. Book the tour, not a ticket, through them: the ticket itself should come from the museum's own system, in your passport name, released seven days ahead. Before paying, ask the tour company whether it books that real-name ticket for you or expects you to book it yourself.

Getting there, and where to go from the north gate

By metro. Take Line 1 to Tiananmen East or Tiananmen West. Both stations come out on Chang'an Avenue at the north end of Tiananmen Square. Walk north through the arches under Tiananmen Gate (the one with the portrait), keep going straight through the long courtyard, and the Meridian Gate is at the far end. Qianmen station on Line 2 or Line 8 also works if you are walking up through the square first. Our China metro guide explains paying at the gates with a foreign card, and stations around Tiananmen can close during state events, announced in advance on the city's official channels.

Line 1 through Tiananmen is busy all day; if you are staying out for dinner afterwards, check your line on our Beijing last-train times page. For metro routes and the day's stops on your phone without data, the WaysChina app is our offline metro and trip-planning helper, with Beijing among its 10 cities.

By taxi or DiDi. A car cannot take you to the Meridian Gate itself, which sits behind Tiananmen Gate inside the palace complex, so you walk the last part through security either way. Ask to be dropped near Tiananmen East metro station, then walk. Our DiDi guide covers booking a car in English.

Out of the Gate of Divine Prowess. You come out on the north side of the moat, with Jingshan Park (景山公园, Jǐngshān Gōngyuán) directly across the road. Its ticket is 2 yuan, or 10 yuan during the spring peony festival, and it is open 6:30–21:00 from April to October and 6:30–20:00 from November to March. A short climb to the pavilion on top gives you the view over the whole palace in rows of yellow roofs, which is the best way to understand the layout you just walked through.

Beihai Park, with its lake and white Tibetan-style stupa, is a few minutes' walk west of Jingshan. Peak-season entry is 10 yuan, off-season 5 yuan, and the nearest metro is Beihai North on Line 6, exit B. There is also a double-decker shuttle bus from the Gate of Divine Prowess to Beihai's north gate via Nanluoguxiang, at 10 yuan a ride; it was set up in 2024, so check it is still running on the day.

If you came out of the East Glorious Gate instead, you are on the quiet east side of the palace; the moat path leads north to the Jingshan side or south back toward Tiananmen East station.

Planning the day: Tiananmen Square, the National Museum and Jingshan

Tiananmen Square. The square is free but has its own real-name booking, made 1–7 days ahead, and foreign visitors book with the passport they entered China on. The useful part: if you already have a Forbidden City ticket for that day, your palace booking also gets you into the square and you do not need a separate square booking. You still go through security, and the square can close at short notice for state events. The square's booking mini programs are mainly in Chinese, so the palace ticket is the simpler key for most foreign visitors.

If you want the flag-raising ceremony at dawn, book the square's "flag-raising" slot specifically. The ceremony time changes every day with the season and is published in an official yearly timetable, so check the time for your date.

The National Museum of China stands on the east side of the square. Entry is free but needs a real-name booking up to seven days ahead; new slots are released each day at 17:00, and you enter through the north entrance with the original ID you booked with. It opens 9:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:00, extended to 17:30 from June to October, and it is also closed on Mondays except public holidays. The museum's booking rules say "valid ID" without naming passports, so use its official English booking page and check that your passport is accepted when you register.

Plan A: palace and the north side (most people).

• 8:00–8:30: arrive at Tiananmen East, walk through the square and under Tiananmen Gate.
• 8:30–12:30: the Forbidden City on a morning ticket — central axis plus one side section.
• 12:30–13:30: out of the north gate, up Jingshan Park for the view.
• Afternoon: Beihai Park, then the hutongs around Shichahai or Nanluoguxiang. Our Beijing food guide has where to eat around there.

Plan B: the National Museum first. Book the museum's first slot of the day and the palace's afternoon session. Spend 9:00–11:00 at the museum, walk across to the Meridian Gate for an 11:00–11:30 entry, and finish at Jingshan in the late afternoon, which is the nicest light for the view over the roofs. This is a long day on foot. If you care about both the museum and the palace, we would give them separate days.

Whichever plan you pick, avoid Monday: the palace and the National Museum both close. Use Monday for the Great Wall — our Great Wall guide covers which section to choose. Our 3-day Beijing itinerary puts these pieces into a full schedule. For the other big museums in Beijing and around China, see our museum guide, and for how the palace compares with China's other ancient sites, see our historical sites guide.

Rules worth knowing

Smoking is banned everywhere in the palace grounds, including e-cigarettes. Ordinary photos are fine, but flash, selfie sticks and tripods are not allowed in the exhibition halls, and neither is live-streaming; you also cannot eat or sit on the floor in the halls, or climb or touch the old buildings. Prohibited items are stopped at the security check: anything that meets the left-luggage rules can be stored, the museum can help refund your ticket if an item cannot be dealt with, and visitors who are drunk or not properly dressed can be refused entry. The museum's prohibited-items list (故宫博物院禁止携带物品目录, Palace Museum List of Prohibited Items) is the reference at security; in practice, leave drones, knives and anything that looks like a weapon at your hotel and keep your bag small.

A short history

The Forbidden City was the palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, where they lived and ruled until the end of imperial China; today the Palace Museum runs it. It sits on Beijing's north–south central axis with one gate on each side — the Meridian Gate to the south, the Gate of Divine Prowess to the north, the East Glorious Gate to the east and the West Glorious Gate (西华门, Xīhuámén) to the west — and you approach it from the south through Tiananmen. UNESCO lists it as a World Heritage Site under Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang, a listing it shares with the Mukden Palace in Shenyang, which joined in July 2004.

Before you go

Set a reminder for 20:00 Beijing time seven days before your chosen date and book on the museum's international platform with your passport number. Pick the morning session, add the Treasure Gallery if you have more than two hours, and avoid Mondays. On the day, carry the original passport you booked with, arrive at Tiananmen East by about 8:00, walk the central axis, take one side section, and leave by the north gate for the view from Jingshan Park. If you also want the National Museum, book it separately and consider giving it its own morning.

Last updated: October 2026