Do I need to book Forbidden City tickets in advance?
Yes. The Palace Museum (故宫博物院, the Forbidden City's official name) does not sell tickets for the same day, so you can't turn up and buy one at the gate. Every visitor, including kids and anyone on a free or discounted ticket, books ahead under their real name. Foreign visitors book with a passport.
Entry is capped at 40,000 visitors a day, and tickets for each date go on sale at 20:00 Beijing time, seven days before. Popular dates, especially Chinese public holidays, can sell out fast. When we checked the English booking site at 18:48 Beijing time on 1 October 2026, 2–6 October (the National Day holiday) were all sold out, and 7 October was the only date open. So pick your date, note when it goes on sale, and be on the official site at that time.
How to book Forbidden City tickets with a foreign passport
The museum runs an official English booking site at bookingticket.dpm.org.cn, linked from the Book Tickets button on its English website. If you don't read Chinese, that's the route we'd use. Here's the sequence:
- Pick a date that isn't a Monday. The museum closes every Monday unless that Monday is a Chinese statutory public holiday. Then check the announcements on dpm.org.cn for one-off changes: extra closures, and occasionally a special opening.
- Count back seven days and note 20:00 Beijing time. Beijing time is UTC+8 all year, with no daylight saving, so 20:00 in Beijing is always 12:00 UTC. Convert that to your own time zone, remembering your clocks may change between now and then. To visit on a Saturday, you book the Saturday before.
- Sign in before sales open. The English site's sign-in asks only for an email address: you enter a verification code and the account is created for you. (We haven't gone all the way through payment ourselves, so we can't say what later steps ask for.) Sign in a few minutes early, not at 20:00 sharp.
- Choose the date, the slot and the number of tickets. There are two slots. Morning means you must check in by 12:00. Afternoon means check-in opens at 11:00. Morning gives you more daylight inside, especially from November to March, when last entry is 15:30.
- Enter each visitor's name and passport number exactly as printed. Each passport can hold only one ticket per day, and a ticket can't be moved to another person, date or slot once it's sold.
- Add the Treasure Gallery and Gallery of Clocks now if you want them (¥10 each). They go on sale on the same seven-day schedule as the main ticket.
- Pay. The English site's checkout lists an international bank card option alongside WeChat Pay and Alipay.
The museum's Chinese-language channel is the 故宫博物院 WeChat mini-program, and its rules accept passports there too. If you already use WeChat and are comfortable navigating it in Chinese, it works the same way. The rules don't say anything about phone numbers either way, so if you don't read Chinese, the English site is the easier path.
What about Trip.com, Klook and other resellers?
Resellers do list "Forbidden City tickets". But the museum's booking rules say it has not authorised any third-party agency or individual to sell its tickets. It asks visitors to book through its official channels so that they get in smoothly and don't lose money. Either way, your ticket is checked against your passport at the gate. Since the museum runs its own English booking site, we'd book there.
Forbidden City tickets sold out? What to do
- Keep checking until the day before. Unused tickets can be refunded until 24:00 the night before without counting as a no-show. On the visit day itself a refund is still possible until 20:00, but it counts as one no-show; after 20:00, no refund. The money goes back to your original payment method either way (the rules mention no fee), and three no-shows in 180 days mean a 60-day booking ban. That gives people a reason to cancel early. The museum doesn't say whether cancelled tickets go back on sale, so treat this as a long shot, but checking costs nothing.
- Try the other slot. If mornings are gone, take the afternoon. Check-in opens at 11:00, and in high season you still get five hours before the 16:00 last entry.
- Shuffle your Beijing days. If your Forbidden City date is fixed and sold out, move it rather than giving up. Swap it with your Great Wall or Summer Palace day.
- Ask about a guided group tour. Licensed travel agencies book guided groups through their own team accounts, and every group must have a guide. The museum doesn't say whether team accounts still have tickets when individual dates sell out. Before you pay, ask the agency to confirm the palace booking in your name.
- Don't buy from anyone at the gate. There are no same-day tickets to buy. The museum warns visitors not to trust people handing out flyers or selling things around the site.
On the day: getting in through the Meridian Gate
Bring the original passport you booked with. That's your ticket. Staff check it at the Meridian Gate (午门, Wǔmén), the only entrance, with face recognition to speed things up. A photo of your passport won't do.
The nearest metro stops are Tiananmen East and Tiananmen West on Line 1. From there, which way you walk depends on what you booked:
- Forbidden City only: walk to the Meridian Gate along the moat roads on the east or west side of the palace.
- Tiananmen Square as well: go through the square's security checkpoints, timed to fit your palace slot, then walk north through Tiananmen and the Gate of Uprightness (端门, Duānmén) to the Meridian Gate. That walk is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8:00–16:00, and is closed on Mondays when the museum is shut. The whole area is one-way, south to north, so don't plan to double back.
Inside, the route runs one way, south to north. You leave by the Gate of Divine Prowess (north) or the East Prosperity Gate (east), so do the halls you care about as you pass them. The Treasure Gallery (the Palace of Tranquil Longevity area in the north-east) and the Gallery of Clocks (Hall of Ancestral Worship) stop admitting visitors at 16:10 from April to October and at 15:40 from November to March. The Ceramics Gallery in the Hall of Martial Valor and the special exhibitions need their own reservation, made through the same booking channel.
Closures as of 1 October 2026
The Gate of Supreme Harmony (太和门), the great gate between the Meridian Gate courtyard and the Hall of Supreme Harmony, has been closed for restoration since 3 August 2026, and the notice gives no reopening date. The Palace of Prolonged Happiness (延禧宫) is closed from 1 September to 31 October 2026 and reopens on 1 November. Check the museum's announcements before you go, because closures like these are posted there first.
Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park in one day
The three sit in a straight line on Beijing's central axis, and the classic day walks it south to north: Tiananmen Square → Forbidden City → Jingshan Park.
- Tiananmen Square is free, but it has its own real-name reservation, separate from the palace. The Tiananmen Area Management Committee says individuals and tour groups must book 1–7 days ahead through the official Tiananmen Square reservation platform. Book both, and pick a square time that leaves room before your palace check-in.
- Jingshan Park is directly across the street from the Gate of Divine Prowess, the palace's north exit. Climb its central hill for the view straight back over the palace roofs. The Beijing parks authority's park listing gives adult entry as ¥2, or ¥10 during special events. That listing dates from 2019, so confirm the current price and how to buy at the park or through its official channels. Either way, it's a separate ticket from the palace.
For the full Beijing picture, including how to fit the Great Wall around this day and where to stay, see our Beijing travel guide.
Forbidden City discounts: what applies to foreign visitors
The museum's concession list was written mainly with Chinese visitors in mind. Read it carefully before you count on a discount:
- Under 18, free: the policy names Chinese citizens, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and foreigners with Chinese permanent residence. It doesn't extend this to foreign tourists, so plan to pay for your kids. Each child still needs their own booking. Under-14s must be with an adult, and one adult can bring at most three.
- Students (¥20): for students aged 18 and over, up to bachelor's level. You must show a student card or a letter from your school at the gate. The policy doesn't say whether foreign student cards are accepted.
- Seniors 60+ (half price): the Chinese text says the original 身份证, which normally means the Chinese resident ID card. The museum doesn't say whether a foreign passport qualifies. If you book a senior ticket on a passport, you may be refused at the gate, so we'd suggest foreign seniors book full price.
Full price is ¥60 at most. Getting a ticket for the right date matters more than the discount.
