Initially, the Forbidden City was one of the main things we wanted to see in Beijing. The problem was that, because of various circumstances, we very nearly weren’t able to visit it. The first time we were nearby, we were visiting Beihai Park. The second time we visited the Forbidden City was before we were planning to leave to go and see the Great Wall of China – so we avoided it because we didn’t want to see it in a rush. The third time we were there, we arrived at 2pm and they had sold out of tickets. Imagine the shock on our faces … You can probably see it in the photo. Although I was more angry than shocked! 😀 So, we decided to visit Tiananmen Square.

And after 3 attempts we got to see the Forbidden City…

Finally, with a bit of luck due to visiting Beijing in the summer, we managed to get in to the Forbidden City on our fourth attempt. We would have been very frustrated to have spent 6 days in the city without visiting one of the most important places in all of Beijing and China.

The Forbidden City is absolutely massive! We’d never seen anything like it before. Even more so when we thought about the fact that that the city must be visited a lot by westerners, but in reality we didn’t see anyone who looked like us. Truthfully though, China doesn’t need Westerners to live off tourism 🙂 .

From the moment we got in to arriving at the Gate of Heavenly Purity, we saw that the buildings and “squares” all looked very similar to each other.

Further in to the City you’ll find more than 40 palaces and halls that contain many exhibitions of ancient and precious artefacts and documents.

Towards the end of our visit we had the chance to walk through a very quaint garden full of all sorts of architecture and flowers, as well as the vast numbers of people who gathered in every space available in the garden. It’s China – you’ll find masses of people wherever you go 🙂 .

We spent a wonderful time in the Forbidden City and with some energy to continue some other visits that afternoon, as the Summer Palace and the Bird Nest in the Olimpian City.

Important Facts

The entrance fee is 60 CNY per person and you need at least 4 hours to visit it. Noah in August 2016 was 4 years old, so he did not pay any entrance.