Home/Editorial Guides/Forbidden City ticket guide: Palace Museum passport booking, hours, and one-way route

Travel Guide

Forbidden City ticket guide: Palace Museum passport booking, hours, and one-way route

Beijing’s Palace Museum, often called the Forbidden City, is not a place to treat as a walk-up ticket stop. The official pages say same-day tickets are not sold, all visitors must make real-name reservations, and international visitors need passport

ByMomentBook EditorialPublishedJan 26, 2026UpdatedMay 14, 2026

Use this guide to plan when tickets open, what price to budget, and why your route should run from the Meridian Gate in the south toward the northern exits.

What to know first

The Palace Museum is closed on Mondays except statutory or national holidays.
General admission tickets open from 20:00, seven days before the visit, and same-day tickets are not sold.
Non-mainland China visitors should book and enter with the ID type listed by the official policy, including a passport; one ID can reserve only one admission ticket for a given visit date.
General admission is CNY 60 from April 1 to October 31 and CNY 40 from November 1 to March 31.
The Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks are each listed as CNY 10 add-on tickets.
Visitors enter through the Meridian Gate, Wu men, and leave through the Gate of Divine Prowess or the East Prosperity Gate on a south-to-north route.

Meridian Gate at Beijing's Palace Museum

Source: official Palace Museum wallpaper page.

Start with the official booking channel

The Palace Museum says it has not authorized third-party agents for general admission, Treasure Gallery, Gallery of Clocks, or exhibition reservations. Before comparing prices elsewhere, check the official website, the official WeChat mini program, or the official English instructions for international bookings.

The English visit page says foreign visitors must provide passport numbers during online booking. If a reseller screenshot looks easier, remember that admission is tied to the original valid ID used for the reservation.

Plan around the 20:00 ticket release

The official ticket policy says admission, Treasure Gallery, and Gallery of Clocks tickets can be booked from 20:00, seven days before the visit, and are valid only on the visit day. Treat the Forbidden City as a fixed date in your Beijing plan, then build the rest of the day around it.

Time slots also matter. The Chinese visitor policy says morning-slot visitors must check in by 12:00, while afternoon-slot visitors can start check-in from 11:00. Leave room for hotel checkout, Tiananmen-area security, and transport.

Separate the base ticket from add-ons

The base ticket changes by season: CNY 60 from April 1 to October 31 and CNY 40 from November 1 to March 31.

The Treasure Gallery and Gallery of Clocks are each listed at CNY 10. For a first visit with limited time, the base ticket is enough to follow the central axis and main palace spaces. Add the galleries during booking only if you have a half day or more, or if a specific gallery is the reason for your visit.

Route from Wu men to the northern exits

The official visitor guidance describes a one-way south-to-north route. Entry is through Wu men, the Meridian Gate, and exits are the Gate of Divine Prowess in the north or East Prosperity Gate in the east.

That means even if your hotel is north of the museum, you still need to approach the south entrance. A clean day plan is Tiananmen area, Wu men entry, central-axis visit, northern exit, then Jingshan Park or metro transfer.

Check the refund and missed-appointment rules

Used tickets cannot be refunded. Unused tickets can be refunded through the original payment method before 24:00 on the day before the visit without counting as a missed appointment. Refunds before 20:00 on the visit day still count as one missed appointment. The official guidance says three missed appointments within 180 days lead to a 60-day booking restriction starting the day after the third miss.

If flights or transfers are uncertain, avoid putting the Forbidden City on your first Beijing morning.

Final planning checks

Use this guide as a decision sequence, not as a promise that every counter, gate, platform, trail, or desk will behave the same way on the day you arrive. Start with the official source links, then compare them with your real date, arrival time, group size, mobility needs, luggage, and payment method. If the official page has changed since the checked date, follow the current official page and keep this article as the structure for the questions you still need to answer.

For Forbidden City ticket guide: Palace Museum passport booking, hours, and one-way route, the most useful habit is to keep the practical pieces together. Put tickets, booking references, QR codes, identity documents, pass numbers, screenshots, and the relevant official page in one place before leaving your hotel. If a staff member, driver, guide, ticket desk, or gate agent asks for proof, you should not have to search through email, browser tabs, and photo albums while a queue forms behind you.

Build a time buffer around the strictest point in the plan. That may be last entry, the last return trip, a timed reservation, a maintenance window, a ferry or train connection, a security check, or the moment when weather makes the experience less useful. The buffer is especially important when the route has more than one operator, when a holiday schedule is possible, or when the plan depends on a transfer that is easy on a map but slow in real life.

Treat prices and rules as items to verify, not as trivia to memorize. A good travel plan notes the current fare, permit, pass, age rule, discount category, closure day, bag policy, photo rule, and accessibility limit, then checks the official page again before payment. This avoids the common mistake of buying the right product for last season and the wrong product for this visit.

If the visit matters a lot, prepare a fallback that uses the same area instead of rebuilding the whole day from zero. Choose a nearby indoor stop for bad weather, a lighter route for tired companions, a later meal option for a queue delay, and a return plan that still works if the first choice sells out or stops early. The fallback should be simple enough to use without research under pressure.

Finally, read the source section with a practical lens. Official pages answer different questions: one may confirm the price, another the route, another closures, and another visitor rules. Check the page that matches the decision you are about to make, and do not assume that one source covers every operational detail. That habit keeps the article stable while still letting the newest official information control the final choice.

How to use the sections

Use "What to know first" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.

Use "Start with the official booking channel" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.

Use "Plan around the 20:00 ticket release" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.

Use "Separate the base ticket from add-ons" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.

Use "Route from Wu men to the northern exits" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.

Use "Check the refund and missed-appointment rules" as a checkpoint, not just as background reading. Confirm what decision it supports, what proof or timing it requires, and what you will do if the official source gives a different answer on the travel day.