Panoramic Tour of Forbidden City

This morning, after a warm greeting at the lobby of the hotel you booked yourself, let’s start this panoramic private Forbidden City tour with Jingshan Park. Your guide will first accompany you on a public transport trip, a popular low-cost and eco-friendly method, to Tiananmen Square located at the core of Beijing’s central axis. Depending on the specific location of your hotel, the guide will choose the most convenient and fastest mode of transportation from the subway, city bus, or taxi.

► Notes:
1. Avoid making your travel plan on Mondays when the Forbidden City is closed. Also, tickets for it need to be booked online with your passport information immediately when they are released 7 days before due to their extremely fast sell-out, so please book this tour with us at least 8 days in advance. 
2. A pair of comfortable sneakers will be of great benefit to your tour that require a lot of walking.
3. Reduce your carry-on to a small zipper-free handbag to speed through the no-bag passage at the security checkpoints of Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City.

Once you arrive at the large Tiananmen Square, take your time to stroll around and appreciate those landmark buildings, some retaining the solemnity of the ancient imperial architecture while others blend in with modern national symbols. Facing north, you’ll be amazed by the towering Tiananmen Tower, with its striking vermilion walls and golden hip-and-gable roofs shining brightly in the sun. As we approach, your eyes will be drawn to a pair of huge exquisitely carved ornamental columns standing on both sides of it. With your guide, learn why a divine beast is looking southward at the top of each column - symbolizing the hope that the ancient emperor would remember to return to the royal court behind the tower as soon as possible to handle state affairs when he was out for a trip. After passing through one of the five arch gateways at the base of the tower, prepare to be surprised by another pair, with beasts sitting northward, serving as a warning to the emperor not to stay in the palace for too long without going out to understand his people's real conditions.

Moving forward, the essence of today’s itinerary, the Forbidden City, which took 14 years to complete and has been home to 24 emperors from 1420 to 1911 AD, will then be revealed before your eyes. Honored as the largest and the most intact palace complex in the world, the Forbidden City features more than 9,000 wooden rooms spread out along the 960-meter-long (3,150-foot-long) central axis. Accompanied by your guide, soak up the grandness of the resplendent halls and palaces on the midline and discover the hidden charms of main chambers on the two wings.Entering through the middle gateway of the Meridian Gate, which was exclusively used by the emperors, the first thing that comes into sight will be five parallel marble bridges, with the meandering Inner Golden Water River flowing beneath them. Standing by the bridge with the turrets as the background is a hot practice for visitors to photograph, and your guide will surely be willing to help you take a nice shot with a wide-angle lens here. Continue to go forward, and you’ll reach the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest and highest structure on a white marble terrace with three tiers, dedicated to momentous ceremonies, such as the enthronement of a new emperor, the emperor's wedding, birthday, as well as banquets on major traditional festivals. Marvel at the six pillars inside, which are so large that it takes three adults to embrace one at a time. Their surfaces are engraved with coiled dragons and pasted with gold foils of two shades to highlight the three-dimensional effects of the pattern, still shining with dazzling brilliance to this day. 

★ Special Inclusion: Visit Treasure Gallery & Gallery of Timepieces

To enhance your Forbidden City adventure, we have specially included a visit to two renowned galleries in the east of the Inner Court. Entering the Treasure Gallery, you’ll find countless cultural relics of the imperial court, including jewels, jades, and gold and silver wares, making you feel as if you have opened a mysterious door leading to the life of royalty. While in the Gallery of Timepieces, over 1,500 domestic and foreign clocks are on display, ranging from ancient mechanical art to elegant British-style pocket watches, which will leave you in awe of the outstanding craftsmanship of ancient artisans.Also, we'll visit the three main palaces for emperors’ and empresses’ residence along the central axis of the Inner Court. Leave your curiosity in the last Palace of Earthly Tranquility, which is both the empress’s bedchamber and the shrine for sacrificial ceremonies. It is interesting to know that on the day of the sacrifice, a pig would be slaughtered in front of the tablets, boiled, and placed on the offering table. After the ceremony, the emperor would lead the ministers to eat the meat, meaning to share the good fortune. As the meat was tasteless and too greasy to swallow, some officials would secretly hide salt in their large sleeves beforehand; while others, in an attempt to please the emperor, would pretend to feast heartily, only to suffer from continuous abdominal pain and thus lost etiquette instead. Next, let’s proceed to the Imperial Garden, a picturesque mecca for the emperor, empress, and concubines to relax and enjoy the beautiful views. After sightseeing the gorgeous rockery landscapes, bridges, and pavilions here, get out of the Forbidden City from its northernmost Gate of Divine Prowess.

After that, the guide will accompany you on a 5-minute walk further north to the last stop of the day, Jingshan Park, nicknamed the ‘millennium viewing platform of the Forbidden City’. The core sight inside, Jingshan Hill, once the highest point of Beijing, was actually artificially created by muck excavated from the moat around the Forbidden City, in order to cater to the traditional geomantic concept of backing mountains and facing water when the emperor ordered the initial construction of the imperial palace. Standing against the railing of the Wanchun Pavilion on the hilltop, you’ll be awestruck by the panoramic view of the Forbidden City with its wave-like golden tiles in the south, the Bell and Drum Towers used for morning and evening timekeeping in the north, as well as the modern skyscrapers and distinctive grey-tiled quadrangle courtyards in old Hutong alleys complement each other on the east and west sides.

Your panoramic Forbidden City tour so far has ended, and your guide will escort you back to your hotel by public transport. For more visits to unmissable Beijing highlights, such as the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and Lama Temple, check out our other classic Beijing tours, or contact us anytime to customize a personalized itinerary for you.

► Recommended Nearby Destinations to Enrich Your Trip:
Want to explore more on your own for the rest of the day? Part ways with the guide as you exit the Jingshan Park, and then walk westward for about 10 minutes to Beihai Park, where you can experience the serene beauty of the royal garden and witness the only doubled-sided glazed Nine-Dragon Wall in China. Afterward, exit through its north gate and walk for 15 minutes to reach the Prince Gong’s Mansion, once home to a notorious corrupt official in 1780s AD, and take in those astonishingly sumptuous buildings, such as the Xijin Studio with golden phoebe pillars each worth CNY 2.7 billion. Coming out of it, you’ll be in the bustling Shichahai area, which has both traditional Hutong alleys like Tobacco Pine Lane for you to view local life and Houhai Bar Street for relaxation and entertainment.