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Forbidden City Tour: Explore Emperors' Residences
4.9
14 Ratings
Beijing
Experience an in-depth tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing, exploring hidden treasures and the living quarters of emperors. Enjoy a royal lunch in the historic Imperial Icehouse.
Experience an in-depth tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing, exploring hidden treasures and the living quarters of emperors. Enjoy a royal lunch in the historic Imperial Icehouse.
Duration:
6 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Forbidden City-The Palace Museum - Meet your guide at selected time and start to explore the largest Imperial Palace in the world thoroughly. During this tour, you will also have a very unique lunch experience at one of the Imperial Ice Houses of the Emperor. Those are some of the important places you will see:
- Turret of The Palace Museum -…
- Forbidden City-The Palace Museum - Meet your guide at selected time and start to explore the largest Imperial Palace in the world thoroughly. During this tour, you will also have a very unique lunch experience at one of the Imperial Ice Houses of the Emperor. Those are some of the important places you will see:
- Turret of The Palace Museum - Part of the defensive construction of the Forbidden city at each corner of the Wall. You will get inside one of them if the Wall is open.
- Meridian Gate (Wu Men) - South gate and main entrance to the Forbidden City. The emperor used to believe the Meridian Line went right through it.
- Hall of Great Harmony (Taihe Dian) - The the most important building in the Forbidden City and the largest wooden structure in the world, where the Emperor used to work and hold important ceremonies.
- Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian) - Used for banquets and later for imperial examinations. The exam was under the supervision of the emperor, which tested candidates’ understanding of classical and Confucian literature. Then they were either assigned to the provinces or selected to work in the central government ministries.
- Inner Court - It was the place where the emperor used to handle daily affairs and the living quarter for the emperor, empress and imperial concubines.
- Palace of Heavenly Purity - The largest building in the Inner Court, the residence of the Emperor.
- The Antiquarium of The Palace Museum - Also known as Treasure Hall, it is actually made of several buildings which were built for the abdicated Emperor Qianlong. Now they are exhibition rooms with several theme halls and the largest imperial theatre in the Forbidden City.
- The Nine Dragon Screen of The Palace Museum - Just nearby the entrance of Treasure Hall, it is one of the three Nine Dargon Screens in China, the other two are in Beihai Park and Datong respectively. The nine dragons engraved on the screen are different in color and posture. No matter where you start to count the nine dragons, from left or right, the first one and fifth one and ninth one would be a yellow color dragon which represents the supreme power of the emperor.
- The Imperial Garden of The Palace Museum - Rectangular in shape, containing more than 20 different types of buildings, pavilions, terraces, towers and rockeries. Also, there are four pavilions in the garden, symbolizing the four seasons in a year.
What's Included
- All tickets of the Forbidden City
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Mineral water
- Lunch with soft drinks/beer
- Experienced English-speaking guide
- All tickets of the Forbidden City
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Mineral water
- Lunch with soft drinks/beer
- Experienced English-speaking guide
Additional Information
The Forbidden City is listed as the number one must-see in Beijing, which served as the residence of Chinese Ming and Qing emperors for almost 500 years. Go beyond the typical attractions within the City on this comprehensive 6-hour guided tour, which includes access to the Clock Room,Treasure House, living and working places of emperors. In this tour,…
The Forbidden City is listed as the number one must-see in Beijing, which served as the residence of Chinese Ming and Qing emperors for almost 500 years. Go beyond the typical attractions within the City on this comprehensive 6-hour guided tour, which includes access to the Clock Room,Treasure House, living and working places of emperors. In this tour, you will actually get inside some of the buildings in the Forbidden City. Lunch will served in the former Imperial Icehouse inside Forbidden City.
- Passport name, number, is required at time of booking for all participants
Location
Forbidden City-The Palace Museum
No.4 Jingshanqian Street, Dongcheng District,
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.9
(14 Ratings)
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Lusannak
Oct 8, 2019
Super Informative with Excellent Guide! - We took the above tour with Angie today. As soon as we booked, communication was thorough, clear and easy to understand. Angie was prompt, and gave us a few tips before we left the Hotel, including to make sure we had appropriate clothing and our passports. Angie took us on the scenic route from our Hotel, to make sure we had seen a few of the city’s most important areas. Angie’s knowledge is extremely comprehensive and is not limited to the subject of the tour itself. Lunch on the tour was a little underwhelming for our Australian tastes, but it was nice to sit down and have a refresher all the same. Afterward, Angie went above and beyond, helping us arrange additional transport for our transfer to the Airport and has even offered to help us “Like an old friend” if we need her help in the future. We would definitely recommend her as a guide!! Thank you Angie!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Fernando
Sep 30, 2019
Exclenet tour & dinner - I was impressed with the follow up and punctuality of our guide Angie. She contacted us the day before to make sure we were on time and ready for our tour. We visited the Forbidden City and had dinner in a local restaurant. Angie did a very good job explaining us all the details about the Forbidden City. Instead of having dinner at the Icehouse, we went to a local restaurant, It was grate to have Angie there to helped us with the order, excellent dinner, very nice local restaurant and very good conversation. Al lot of food and very good variety of local dishes.
Review provided by Viator
Inspiration826677
Sep 19, 2019
Forbidden City plus Lunch at Royal Ice House - We booked this private tour as we have an elderly lady who need more attention touring this Forbidden city.
We are extremely glad to have Lily as our guide as she was very accommodating and patiently pacing us thru out the entire tour.
Lily took extra care of the elderly in our group and at the same time explaining in details of the history of this large palace.
Lunch at the Royal Ice House was a disappointment. food was not unique and service not up to mark.
Overall a great experience.
Review provided by Viator
G7081jxcharlesh
Sep 17, 2019
Forbidden City Private Tour with Angie - Angie picked us up at the hotel on time. When we arrived at Forbidden City we left our things in the car, and she was really helpful to take it back to our hotel. I was very impressed with her knowledge about the history and she make it interactive with asking some questions. Since the Thien An Men was closed that day, she gladly take us to the shopping mall where we want to go. Maybe on the tour description should be clearer and exact, like inclusive of mineral water and snuff bottle. Overall it’s a great experience to have her to guide us.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
A9440swmarianap
May 6, 2019
Excellent!! - the forbidden city is amazing and I learnt so much with Shanshan. She was an amazing guide! Plenty of time to see everything. Lovely tour. I highly recommend it!!
Review provided by Viator
Elissejo
Mar 29, 2018
A marvelous day with a fab lunch in the Forbidden City's Ice House! - We had an excellent day walking miles and miles through the Forbidden City with our charming and knowledgeable guide, seeing a number of exhibitions, as well as many of the squares and pavilions, the Opera House, and the gorgeous royal golden-yellow porcelain roof tiles with their finely detailed animals perched on each corner... and learning all about them! We also enjoyed a lovely light lunch of beef, mushrooms, rice, salads, and tasty date and flower teas at the Ice House Restaurant, a reservation-needed restaurant that is the ONLY restaurant in the Forbidden City, and is actually in the original and historic, stone-walled ice house! Tricked out with clever "ice cube" tables and "ice" chandeliers, it's truly a "Chinese Only" restaurant, as it appears nowhere on the internet except this one tour! We traveled through China during Chinese New Year month, and the lines for everything were insane and tickets sold out in seconds! Taking this tour enabled us to avoid all that- no lines to stand on anywhere! At the end of out tour we were given lovely souvenirs- two little snuff bottles with our names painted inside- as a memento of our day. Our guide was delightful company and very helpful- she even helped us buy souvenir hats after we left the Forbidden City and not get ripped off! LOL We used Didi Cars (China's Uber) for transport, and they're a great, fast way to get around the city "just like a local"! We Highly recommend this tour- we had a great and truly unique day in Beijing!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Harini
Dec 27, 2017
Our tour guide, Helen Zhang, took us... - <p>Our tour guide, Helen Zhang, took us through an amazing experience. Her immense knowledge of both the history and the culture of the Forbidden City really gave us an insight into the significance of this majestic estate. The 72-hectare area is overwhelming at first but Helen's pace and ability to dodge the busy crowds really made a difference. We felt much more enriched with information as we left the Forbidden City than we otherwise would have and it's all thanks to Helen! After this, she continued to help us navigate through Beijing via WhatsApp, even giving us hand written directions in both English/Chinese to help us get to the Great Wall 2 days later. It's been nearly a week since our visit to the Forbidden City and meeting Helen but we still keep in touch via WeChat. She was absolutely amazing and highly recommend her service!</p>
Review provided by Viator
Jdrapp
Nov 1, 2017
Tour was fantastic, we walked all... - <p>Tour was fantastic, we walked all over the Forbidden City and saw many unique items we would never have found on our own. The tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and made the trip extremely entertaining and informative. Lunch was great and enjoyed in a unique atmosphere right in the center of the palace.I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants an in-depth visit to a large portion of the Forbidden City.</p>
Review provided by Viator
Daniel_b
Jun 19, 2017
Great tour guide and the food was... - <p>Great tour guide and the food was delicious and a nice temporary escape from the heat!</p>
Review provided by Viator
Honzky
Aug 24, 2023
In-depth Forbidden City tour with Royal Icehouse Lunch - We booked this tour through the Marriott Bonvoy Tours & Activities web site because we didn’t realize that the ticket to the Forbidden City is at least a week or even 10 days in advance. Our initial booking wasn’t successful, however our tour guide, Bruce Li, was very helpful and kept trying to book our tickets a day before we left Beijing. Thanks to Bruce’s effort and numerous email communications we finally were able to visit the Forbidden City which is one of my spouse’s must-see places while we were in Beijing.
Overall, we were satisfied with the arrangement of our tour. I understand that it is not possible to see all the attractions available inside the Forbidden City in a few hours, this tour however did provide a basic impression of this marvelous historical palace. Bruce explained quite detailed about all the attractions we had visited. Luckily it was a hot day during our visit; we basically walked through the Forbidden City in about 4 hours and that’s a lot of walking.
Although this tour is a bit pricy however if someone has never been in China before and does not speak Chinese, a guided tour by a professional tour guide like Bruce is still worth it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
