Forbidden City Tickets 2026: Prices, Hours and How to Book

Forbidden City (Palace Museum) tickets cost ¥60 in peak season and ¥40 off-peak. Closed Mondays, no same-day tickets, and foreign visitors book with a passport number — here is the full process.

The Forbidden City — officially the Palace Museum — is the large wooden palace complex in the center of Beijing. It was the home of 24 Ming and Qing emperors, and it is now the single busiest museum in the world by visitor numbers. This page covers the only three things that can ruin a visit: the ticket price, the Monday closure, and the booking process for foreign passports.

Ticket prices at a glance

Two things travelers miss:

• The ¥10 galleries are separate tickets. The general admission ticket does not include the Treasure Gallery or the Clock Gallery. Buy them as a set if you want the imperial clocks and the gold work.
• Half price for 60 and above. Visitors aged 60 or older with a valid ID pay half the general price. Visitors under 18 who are Chinese nationals (including permanent residents) enter free — this does not apply to ordinary foreign passports.

How to book Forbidden City tickets (step by step)

1. Go to the official ticketing site, ticket.dpm.org.cn, or the official WeChat account of the Palace Museum. Third-party sites resell the same tickets at a markup and sometimes bundle guided tours you did not ask for.
2. Pick your date and entry time slot. The museum opens 8:30 and stops entry at 16:00 in peak season, 15:30 off-peak.
3. Enter each visitor’s real name and passport number exactly as printed in the passport. A typo here is the most common reason foreign visitors get stopped at the gate.
4. Pay by card or mobile payment and keep the confirmation. You do not need to print anything — scan the QR code at the gate.
5. Bring the same passport you booked with. The name on the ticket, the passport, and the person at the gate all have to match.

The daily cap is 40,000 visitors. Book as early as you can; weekends, national holidays, and the summer weeks fill first.

Ticket season versus crowd season — do not mix them up

The price calendar and the crowd calendar are two different things, and confusing them is the classic mistake:

• The cheap season is not always the quiet season. The ¥40 off-peak price runs November 1 to March 31 — and that window contains Chinese New Year, usually late January or February, which is one of the most crowded weeks of the Beijing year. You will pay the low price and stand in the same queues as everyone else.
• The expensive season is not uniformly busy. July and August carry the ¥60 peak price, but mid-week mornings in a heat wave are noticeably thinner than a mild Saturday in May.
• The genuinely quiet stretch is mid-week from December to early January, outside the New Year run-up — cold, low price, thin crowds.

If your goal is photographs rather than savings, aim for the first entry slot at 8:30 on a mid-week day.

Getting there, and the trap next door

The museum sits on the central axis, just south of Tiananmen Square. Subway Line 1 to Tiananmen East or Tiananmen West puts you at the south side; walk north through the gate towers to the Meridian Gate, the only tourist entrance.

The trap: Tiananmen Square itself needs its own free reservation, booked 1 to 7 days ahead through the official reservation platform. Same-day booking does not exist. If your plan is “square in the morning, Forbidden City in the afternoon”, book the square slot first — it is the piece people forget, and it is free, so there is no reason to skip it except the queue.

The route through the palace

The visit runs south to north. You enter at the Meridian Gate, walk the central axis past the Gate of Supreme Harmony and the three great halls, then either exit at the Gate of Divine Might on the north side or loop the eastern and western palaces first. Two practical notes:

• Exiting north drops you at Jingshan Park, across the moat — the classic hilltop panorama over the palace roofs. Worth the climb if the light is good.
• The palace is vast and mostly outdoors. In July and August there is very little shade on the axis; a hat matters more than a jacket.

Mistakes that cost people a visit

• Arriving on a Monday. Closed, full stop, unless it is a public holiday. Check the calendar before you fix your dates.
• Trying to buy at the gate. No same-day sales. There is no “walk-up” option.
• Booking under the wrong name. The passport name you type is the passport you show. Fix it before the visit, not at the gate.
• Assuming the ticket covers everything. The two ¥10 galleries are add-ons, and so are audio guides and any special exhibition.
• Going at midday in summer. Heat, glare, and peak crowds land in the same hours. Early entry or late-afternoon slots are the same price.

Page last reviewed: 2026-10-17. Ticket seasons and crowd seasons are different things — this page states both where they differ.