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 Forbidden City of China has an history of
at least 500 years hosted Qing and Ming dynasty emperors and their
families. It is a well known places to every global citizens still it
is so far beyond reach and mysterious still to most us. Visiting this
incredible piece of Chinese brilliant architecture design with heavy Qing and Ming dynastic culture flavor brings visitors a memorable
experience in life time, especially the 10 meter tall red walls, shining gold roof top,
52 meter width of water canal around the city, 961 meter from south to
north, 753 meter from east to west, 780 thousands square meters spatial buildings, 9999
rooms, and so much untold stories and even some secret passages and
private rooms are yet to be explored and show to the world.
Buildings in Forbidden City China
Basically the layout structure of
Forbidden City can be divided into 2 main section, the southern part
start with Wu Meng (The Meridian Gate), follow by 5 golden water river
bridges which serve as castle protection
and address fire breakout protection considering, then follow by the
The Gate of Supreme Harmony which it is the largest gate in Forbidden
City. The building here consists of Taihe Dian, Chonghe Dian and Baohe
Dian at both side of the buildings are the places for emperors to host
their daily meetings in the morning with the generals, this whole area
is called "Qian Chao". At the northern part, there are couple of main
halls like Qianqing Gong, Jiaotai Gong, Three Kunning Gong and East and
West Six Gong surrounded royal garden as central. At the northern east
side, there are Fengxian Dian and Wangji Dian; western north there are
Yangxing Dian, Yuhua penthouse, Chining Gong, which are the places for
emperors and his empress and concubines to have their daily life,
celebrations, praying and culture events, and this area is called "Ho
Qing".
If you look at the diagram, you will see
the complete landscape of Forbidden City, but not all of the places are
open to public for now. It is advice to hire a guide or at least has a
complete map in handy as possible, since once may get lost their way in
this huge ancient city with almost similar colors of walls and walk
way, but too many branches just a like a maze.
Museum Exhibition
As for now it has turned into a national
museum which holds a million artifacts which is about 16% of total
China artifacts today. Throughout the year, there are many exhibitions
showcasing different artifacts in some halls inside Forbidden City this
include of history and arts, precious watches and clocks, jades,
diamonds, pearls, gold and silvers, bronze, emperors and empress
costume. Even there is a war museum showcasing the weapons, things use
in wars and a special traditional armor that is formed by 600 thousands
small little bronze metal which used about 40 thousands man hours to
complete this.
Suggested Route & Tips
(a) 2 hours
Go only the central straight line from Wu
Gate to Shenwu Gate from South to North visit, snap some photos at
outside of Wu Gate to capture the "U" shape tall walls with 3 big
entrances into the Forbidden City of China. Then walk straight into
Taihe Gate and pause for a while to snap some picture of the famous
Taihe Dian. Continue to walk through Qianqing Gong, Jiaotai Gong, Three
Kunning Gong see the places where emperors sleep, eat and spend his
team while not handling any work related matters. Continue your journey
into the Royal Garden where you can see many unique trees, some are
just like the crawl of the dragon, some are just like stones, and most
important is to see the landscape of this garden that how well it is
organized, and take a brief stop sitting down here to catch some breath
and rest before leaving here to next destination. You can come out from
the Shenwu Gate just at the back of the garden. If you are using the
virtual guide at here and get back your RMB 100 deposit.
(b) 4 hours
With 4 hours, you have the changes to
visit some cool artifacts in couple of museum exhibition hall and plus
some extra buildings at the western area. Just follow the 2 hours route
then follow with what we going to recommend here.
At the western side, there are particular
couple of cool things that you should not miss, it is the 9 Dragon Wall
which it has 9 different colors of dragon on the wall. Then there is
treasure artifacts exhibition halls where a lot of artistic ancient
artifacts were made by jade, diamonds, ruby, etc that you have to check
it out. Another place is the 9 storey Chinese opera house dedicated for
emperor only, it is so unique that every layer there are people
performing and all of them are following a single epic story line, you
can see how the architecture is been build and imagining you are the
emperor laying at your cushion chair watching the opera.
(c) 6 hours
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For 6 hours trip, you really can fully
enjoy the inside-out of Forbidden City. After you have enter the Wu
Gate, go check out what is the special exhibition theme for the month
located above Wu Gate, there is a big connector hall above Wu Gate.
From quarter to quarter, they will have different exhibition theme
sometimes it is related to Forbidden city sometimes it is not. Before
come down from Wu Gate, please remember to snap a few nice view photo
looking out from Wu Gate to Tiananmen Square and into Taihe Dian at a
much higher level that you never can capture such angle pictures.
Follow the first half of the 2 hours
route, before move on the northen part of Forbidden City, at the both
side of "Qian Chao" area, there are multiple exhibition about Forbidden
City construction and architectural, tools for building this gigantic
buildings, sharing the technology behind on how to build this without
any nails or screws, drawings, Buddhism history, Chinese
calligraphy, and a lot more to go on.
Then move on to "Ho Gong" place where
emperor and empress or concubines resting places, there are 2 very
special place you should not skip is the one and only one foreign
architecture design structure in Forbidden City which developed under
the instruction of Chi Xi empress, it is very special as using a lot of
glasses as walls. Another one is a must see place is the place where
Chi Xi empress sleep, you can tell by the decoration at its garden that
it is so different as compare to other empress or concubine.
Then follow the second part of the 4
hours route, before finishing the your trip and make sure you have to
visit one very mysterious spot named The Well of Concubine Zhen, where
she forced to commit suicide here under the direction of Chi Xi
empress, it was a tragic story on this unfortunate Zhen concubine.
Bag Storage
For backpackers, it is advise to store
your bag in the storage area located at outside of Wu Gate and Shenwu
Gate eastern side, operation hours from 8.30am - 6.00pm Since Forbidden
City practice very tight security check at the entrance as it is very
troublesome to carry so many things with you.
Virtual Guide
You can rent a virtual guide at the main
entrance in Wu Gate with you along the walk through Forbidden City if
you like to have a quiet, self page enjoyment in fully explore the
Forbidden City. Whenever you walk to a tourist or history spot, the
sensor will activate the narration in your selected language and
deliver to your ears through the headset. It cost only RMB 40 with RMB
100 deposit which you can get it back before you left the place.
Personal 1 to 1 Guide
If you are going in a group of 5 or less,
it advise to hire a local tour guide which they usually speak very good
English or any foreign languages as most of them are university
students. It cost only RMB 200 for the whole journey covering central
and west route with you side by
side telling you every interesting stories, history, myths throughout
the journey in this Forbidden City tour.
If you are just go for central route
only, it will only cost RMB 80.
If you have more than 5 person in a
group, every extra person will have to add another RMB 10.
Operation Hours & Entrance Fees
Peak Season: April 1st - October 31st
Open at 8:30am
Last Entry 4:00pm
Close at 5:00pm
Entrance Ticket: RMB 60 (excluding
Treasure Exhibition, Clock & Watch Exhibition Hall), Kids below 1.2
meter height free admission
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Off Peak Season: November 11th - March
31st
Open at 8.30am
Last Entry at 3.30pm
Close at 4.30pm
Entrance Ticket: RMB 40
(excluding Treasure Exhibition, Clock &
Watch Exhibition Hall), Kids below 1.2 meter height free admission
Other Fees:
Treasure Exhibition Hall (Zhienbao Hall):
RMB 10 (including Ningshuo Hall, Opera house, Shigu Hall)
Clock & Watch Exhibition Hall: RMB 10
How To Get There & Entrance of Forbidden
City
1) Wu Gate - from Tiananmen Square walk
towards North direction
Buses stop at Eastern Tiananmen Square:
Bus number -
1,2,10,20,82,120,37,52,126,802,203,205,210,728; and No. 1 Subway Line
Buses stop at Western Tiananmen Square:
Bus number - 1,5,10,22,37,52,205,802,728;
and No. 1 Subway Line
2) Shenwu Gate - located at Forbidden
City Museum north door, just opposite Jingshan Park
Buses stop at Forbidden City Museum:
Bus number - 202, 211, 685, 810, 814,
846; Tram - 101, 103, 109, 124
Or any Taxi in the Beijing will get you
there from inner ring will cost you less than RMB 20.
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