Forbidden City
Ciudad Prohibida
Forbidden City (4 Jing Shan Qian Jie, Dongcheng, Beijing) — The Forbidden City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the former imperial palace, which was the home to twenty-four Chinese emperors (from the Ming and Qing dynasties) over 491 years between 1420 and 1911. The Forbidden City is now known as the Palace Museum (displaying over a million historic artifacts) and is open to Beijing’s visitors.
The well-guarded palace is surrounded by a moat 3,800 meters long and 52 meters wide. Intruders were discouraged by guards in watchtowers with bow and arrows. The Forbidden City, extending 753 meters from east to west, and 961 meters from north to south, makes a rectangular shape and covers a total area of 720,000 square meters. It consists of several dozen compounds of varying sizes and some 9,900 bays of rooms, with a total floor area of 150,000 square meters.
Admission: 60 RMB (April-October), 40 RMB (November – March). Hours: 8:30 am – 5:00 pm (Tuesday – Sunday) (closed on Monday).
Note: The Palace Museum is limiting the daily number of visitors to 80,000, and recommending both individual visitors and tourist groups book tickets online (booking address: https://gugong.228.com.cn).