How to Visit the Palace Museum in Beijing

Most of tourists would like to visit the local museums when they travel to a totally strange city. It’s considered the fastest and most intuitive way to learn about the history and culture of a new place. When you could be in Beijing, the palace Museum is your top choice and destination to visit. It used to be the abode of emperors of Qing Dynasty, and now a museum for collections of Chinese cultural relics.

The structure of the Palace Museum is a little complicated. It’s easy for the foreign travelers to get lost or miss the best parts of this world-renowned oriental palace. If you are desperate to visit it, please make an elaborate plan before taking this trip. The following tips will help save your time and money.

1. Admission fee: Nov 1st - Mar 31st: 40RMB; Apr 1st - Oct 31st: 60 RMB

﹡Free for children under 120cm tall

﹡Additional 10RMB respectively for ticket to the Treasure Gallery and the Hall of Clocks

2. Opening hours: Daily all year

Apr 1st - Oct 31st: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Last entry: 16:10

Last tickets are sold at 16:00

Jul 7th - Aug 26th: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Last entry: 16:10

Last tickets are sold at 16:00

Nov 1st - Mar 31st: 8:30am - 4:30pm

Last entry: 15:40

Last tickets are sold at 15:30

The Place Museum covers an area of 72 hectares. Usually, it takes you three to four hours to cruise. It’s advisable to make a plan for the starting time of visiting. By the way, wear your most comfortable shoes for a long walk, because there is no other transportation method except walk.

3. Best tourist time: September-October

The weather of Beijing is neither hot nor cold. Therefore, it is the best time to visit the Palace Museum.

4. Try to Avoid Weekends or Holidays of China

The Palace Museum is a highlight for every tourist from all around the world who visit Beijing for the first time. You can imagine what a big crowd there is around the museum. However, you can avoid going there on weekends or public holidays of China. Or else, you will see huge crowds of people instead of the splendid royal palace. And it will destroy your interest of appreciating the cultural relics.

5. Choose the Right Entrance

The Palace Museum has two entrances: the southern gate and northern gate. The southern gate is Meridian Gate (Wumen, 午门). It is linked to Tiananmen Square to the south. The northern gate is Gate of Divine (Shenwu Men, 神武门). You’d better enter the Palace Museum from its southern gate and get out from its northern gate, which is traditionally adopted as a one-way travel route.

 6. Hire a Legal Tour Guide or Rent Audio Guides

The Palace Museum is a tourist resort which is famous for its historical value. If you bear interest in learning the stories behind everything, the local tour guide is necessary. This will increase your cost a bit, but please trust me it should get your money’s worth. Please note that don’t hire the self-employed tour guides who hang around the two entrances of museum. You are advised to get a professional guide service from some reliable travel agencies, such as Tuniu, 51766, daodao, etc. If you dislike the inconvenience of package tour, to rent an audio guide is a better choice. The audio guides are small boxes worn around the neck and come in 40 different languages. The rent for each one is 10 RMB, and 100 RMB for security deposit. The audio guide is used to tell you the architecture and history about the Palace Museum. The vocal introduction can be played once and could not be replayed, so please listen to it carefully.

7. Do homework and learn the background of this museum on related websites

As the fast development of Internet, it’s much easier for people to obtain useful information. There are quite a lot of websites which offers you the English introduction of the Palace Museum, such as China Yellow Pages and ForeignerCN.com. They provide elaborate information about this museum and other tourist attractions which are quite worth visiting.

8. Try to avoid tour vendors nearby

There are many vendors who sell fancy crafts at each entrance. Don’t make any response unless you are desperate for the crafts they suggest. The vendors gathering around the museum usually offer much higher quotes if you are obviously a foreigner there. Thus don’t accept their first quotes and bargain to save more money. Actually, they are eager to sell something to you as much as you want to buy them, so do not doubt your bargaining power.