How Much Is A Forbidden City Entry Ticket?
The official Forbidden City ticket price, what the add-on galleries cost, how the 7-day booking window works, and what third-party reservation services actually charge.
How Much Is A Forbidden City Entry Ticket?
The official ticket costs 60 CNY per adult in peak season, which runs April 1 to October 31, and 40 CNY in the off-peak months of November 1 to March 31. Children and eligible concession groups pay less or nothing. The catch is not the price: the Palace Museum sells no tickets at the gate at all, and every visitor must hold a real-name reservation made in advance through the official WeChat mini-program or website.
That single sentence answers the question most people type into a search box, but the price is the easy part of a Forbidden City visit. The Palace Museum runs one of the strictest admission systems of any major attraction in the world. There are no same-day tickets, no on-site passport counter as a fallback, and no walk-up window for foreigners who arrive without a booking. The official channels are the "故宫博物院" WeChat mini-program and the ticketing pages at dpm.org.cn, and reservations open exactly seven days before the visit date at 20:00 Beijing time. Popular dates, weekends and national holiday periods sell out within minutes of release.
For visitors who cannot or do not want to fight that release window themselves, third-party reservation services exist. They do not sell a different ticket: they book the official admission under the passport details you provide, typically confirming once the official quota opens, and they refund the order if the official quota sells out before they can secure it. The listing for the Forbidden City on this site starts from $7, and the product carries a 4.5 rating across 655 reviews. The Palace Museum itself states plainly on its official site that it "has not authorized any third-party institutions or individuals to act as ticket agents," and both facts belong side by side: the services are real, they work by making the official reservation for you, and the museum's warning is also real. A reader deserves both halves of that picture, and this page keeps them together throughout.
The distinction between the two prices you will see quoted matters more than either number alone. The 60 CNY figure is the door price, what the Palace Museum itself charges for admission. The $7 figure is what a third-party reservation service charges for the work of booking that official ticket under your name. They are two different transactions, and no honest page should blend them into one "ticket price." Confusing them is how visitors end up either overpaying for a service they did not understand or assuming the official ticket is more expensive than it is.
The real-name rule has a practical consequence that catches many travelers off guard: the passport you use when booking is the passport that must match your reservation on the day of your visit. If you book through a third-party service, the passport details you hand over are the details the official ticket is issued under, so a typo in a name or passport number can mean a reservation that cannot be used at the entrance. Check the details before the booking is submitted, not after, because there is no gate-side counter where such an error can be corrected.
The seasonal price split also follows fixed calendar dates, not weather or crowd levels. A visit on October 31 is charged at the peak rate and a visit the very next day, November 1, at the off-peak rate. If your travel dates are flexible and fall near either boundary, shifting the visit by a day changes what the official admission costs, though it does not change how you book: the same seven-day, 20:00 Beijing time release window applies in both seasons, and the busiest dates sell out quickly year-round, not only in summer.
What Does The Base Ticket Include, And What Costs Extra?
General admission covers the outer court, the inner court and the central axis route from the Meridian Gate to the Gate of Divine Prowess, including the ceremonial halls and most permanent displays. Two add-ons cost extra: the Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks, each 10 CNY on top of admission. There is no separate ticket for the central axis itself, and no discount for skipping the paid galleries.
The two add-on galleries are genuinely worth the extra 10 CNY each, and this is where many visitors make a small planning error. The Treasure Gallery, in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity complex in the northeast, holds the museum's most spectacular imperial objects, and the Clock Gallery, in the Fengze Dian area, displays the famous Qing-dynasty musical clocks. Because the Palace Museum's reservation system sells these as separate add-ons, a visitor who books only general admission cannot decide on the day to add them at the door, since there is no door. If you want them, reserve them in the same booking session, in the same seven-day window, at the same 20:00 release.
The Palace Museum publishes its ticketing policy, prices and the no-third-party-agents statement on its official visit pages at dpm.org.cn, and the museum's own youth-oriented English site carries the same policy in English at young.dpm.org.cn. Those are the two pages to check before any visit, because seasonal price changes and policy notices appear there first.
A short budget summary for one adult visiting in peak season:
| Item | Official price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| General admission, peak season (April 1 to October 31) | 60 CNY | Real-name reservation only, released 7 days ahead at 20:00 |
| General admission, off peak (November 1 to March 31) | 40 CNY | Same reservation rules, easier availability |
| Treasure Gallery add-on | 10 CNY | Booked with admission, not sold at the door |
| Gallery of Clocks add-on | 10 CNY | Booked with admission, not sold at the door |
| Third-party reservation service | From $7 | Books the official ticket under your passport details |
Can You Buy A Forbidden City Ticket At The Gate?
No, and this is the fact that most often ruins a trip. The Palace Museum does not sell same-day tickets under any circumstances, and there is no on-site ticket counter for visitors who arrive without a booking. Entry is by advance real-name reservation only, released seven days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time. A foreign visitor holding a passport can make that reservation directly through the official channels.
The gate itself, the Meridian Gate on the north side of Tiananmen Square, is a security and identity checkpoint, not a sales point. Staff scan the passport or ID linked to the reservation, and the name on the reservation must match the document presented. Visitors who show up hoping to buy entry are turned away, and in peak season this happens every single day to people who read an older guidebook or assumed a world-famous site would sell tickets on site.
The seven-day release at 20:00 Beijing time is the practical barrier. Convert that to your home time zone before the trip: 20:00 in Beijing is early afternoon in Europe and morning in North America. Slots for weekend dates in April, May, October and around the national holidays in early October vanish fastest. If your own attempt at the official release fails, or if the WeChat mini-program will not accept your payment method, a reservation service is the fallback, and that is exactly the job the product on this page does.
Planning around the release window is covered in detail in the site's guide to booking Beijing museum tickets, which walks through the WeChat mini-program step by step and lists every museum's release time in one place.
How Hard Is The Official Booking For A Foreign Visitor?
A foreign passport works in the Palace Museum's own booking channels, and the museum is one of the more straightforward major sites in China for foreigners for exactly this reason. The mini-program and the website accept a passport number for real-name registration. The friction is elsewhere: payment, language and timing, not identity. Travelers consistently report the Palace Museum as manageable compared with some free museums whose systems assume a Chinese ID.
The payment side has improved. Since the 2024 to 2025 rollout of foreign card support on the major Chinese payment platforms, a visitor can usually link an international card and pay inside the mini-program, where earlier this was the step that defeated people. The booking itself asks for a name and passport number matching the document you will carry, and the reservation is checked against that document at the Meridian Gate. There is no paper ticket to collect and nothing to print: the passport is the ticket.
If you are weighing the effort, the honest framing is this: the official route is free of service charges and entirely doable with a passport and a linked card, but it demands you be online at the release moment. The service route costs a few dollars more and shifts that work to someone whose whole job is the 20:00 release. Neither route guarantees entry on a date whose quota has already sold out, and any listing that promises otherwise is not describing the real system.
What Is The Third-Party Reservation Service Actually Selling?
It is selling the booking work, not a different ticket. The service takes your passport details, makes the official real-name reservation through the official channel on your behalf when the seven-day window opens, and delivers a confirmation tied to your passport. You enter at the Meridian Gate with that passport exactly as if you had booked it yourself. If the official quota sells out before the service secures a slot, the order is canceled and refunded.
This is why the Palace Museum's warning and the reality of these products coexist without contradiction. The museum is right that it authorizes no agents, and a visitor should know that before paying anyone. The services are also right, in their own listing language, that they are "booking services" or "reservation services" rather than resellers holding independent inventory. The risk a buyer carries is the sell-out-and-refund case, not a fake ticket at the gate. The product listed on this page, from $7 with a 4.5 rating across 655 reviews, works on exactly this model, and its confirmation typically arrives aligned with the official release rather than instantly.
One caution worth stating plainly: a listing that sells a choice between two sites, "Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square," is not a Forbidden City ticket and does not guarantee entry to either site. The price of such a listing is never the price of Forbidden City admission. The product on this page is a single-site timed-entry reservation, which is the only kind worth comparing against the official 60 CNY.
How Does The Price Compare With Beijing's Other Imperial Sites?
The Forbidden City's 60 CNY peak admission is the most expensive single door price among the central imperial sites, but the gap is smaller than the fame gap. The Summer Palace charges 30 CNY at the door, the Lama Temple 25 CNY, and the Old Summer Palace just 10 CNY. Each also carries a reservation requirement, and the Summer Palace product on this site starts from $14 with a 4.7 rating across 1,144 reviews.
The comparison is useful because most visitors pair at least two of these sites, and because the booking mechanics differ in ways the door prices do not reveal. The Summer Palace also requires a reservation, with the release window not published, and its inner halls such as the Tower of Buddhist Incense close on Mondays, though the park grounds stay open. The Lama Temple, which is a working Tibetan Buddhist temple rather than a museum, opens its reservations seven days ahead and charges 25 CNY at the door; the product on this site starts from $10 with a 4.5 rating across 158 reviews. The Old Summer Palace, also not strictly a museum, is the budget option at 10 CNY, and its ruins park rewards a slow half day.
For a fuller comparison across the whole city, the site's guide to the free museums in Beijing covers the venues where the door price is zero but a reservation is still mandatory, which is the pattern that surprises the most visitors.
When Is The Cheapest And Quietest Time To Buy?
The off-peak window from November 1 to March 31 cuts the official admission from 60 CNY to 40 CNY, a saving of a third, and it comes with far easier booking conditions. Winter weekdays outside the Chinese New Year period are the quietest times in the palace. The museum closes on Mondays except statutory holidays, so a Monday visit is not an option at any price.
Winter in the Forbidden City is a genuinely different experience: the courtyards are vast and uncrowded, the light is low and golden, and snow on the golden roofs is one of the most photographed scenes in the city. The tradeoffs are cold, shorter days and the Chinese New Year surge, when domestic tourism fills every slot despite the season. Early December and late February sit in the sweet spot of low demand and the discounted price.
Two more timing facts shape the budget. First, the add-on galleries keep their 10 CNY price year-round, so a full peak-season visit with both galleries costs 80 CNY at the door while the same off-peak visit costs 60 CNY. Second, the Beijing Museum Pass, the 2026 edition covering about 140 venues at 120 CNY for two people across the year, is a real product that can change the arithmetic for a longer stay, though the Palace Museum's own reservation rules still apply to any pass holder. There is no Beijing CityPASS, and any page selling one is selling something that does not exist.
Is The Entry Ticket Worth The Price?
At 60 CNY peak or 40 CNY off peak, the Forbidden City is among the best value per yuan of any major attraction anywhere, and the question is really about time rather than money. Most visitors need three to four hours for the central axis alone, longer with the Treasure Gallery. The price of the ticket is trivial next to the cost of arriving without one, which is why the reservation, not the fee, deserves your planning attention.
The palace holds roughly a thousand surviving buildings behind its walls, and the central axis route from the Meridian Gate through the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the northern gate passes only a fraction of them. The site's write-up of how much time you need in the Forbidden City breaks the routes down by hours, and the question of whether the interior justifies the effort is covered in whether it is worth going inside. The short version: the door price buys access to one of the largest and best-preserved palace complexes on earth, and the two 10 CNY galleries hold the objects most visitors actually remember.
For visitors building a longer route through the city's imperial sites, Beijing Museums maintains a full roster of venues with each one's door price, reservation window and closed day, because those three facts, not the headline price, decide whether a plan survives contact with the booking systems.
Common Questions About Forbidden City Ticket Prices
How Much Is A Forbidden City Entry Ticket?
The official ticket is 60 CNY per adult in peak season, April 1 to October 31, and 40 CNY off peak, November 1 to March 31. The Treasure Gallery and Gallery of Clocks each cost an extra 10 CNY. Third-party reservation services charge from $7 to book the official ticket under your passport details.
Can you buy Forbidden City tickets at the gate?
No. The Palace Museum sells no same-day tickets at all, and there is no on-site counter. Every visitor needs an advance real-name reservation made through the official WeChat mini-program or website, released seven days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time.
Does the Forbidden City ticket include the Treasure Gallery?
No. General admission covers the main palace route, while the Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks are separate add-ons at 10 CNY each. Both must be reserved in the same booking session, because nothing is sold at the door.
Is the Forbidden City cheaper in winter?
Yes. From November 1 to March 31 the official admission drops from 60 CNY to 40 CNY, and demand is much lower outside the Chinese New Year period. The museum still closes on Mondays except statutory holidays.
Are third-party Forbidden City ticket sellers legitimate?
The Palace Museum states it has authorized no third-party ticket agents, and visitors should know that. The reservation services that exist do not resell tickets: they book the official ticket under your passport details and refund if the quota sells out first. Both facts are true at once.
Can a foreign visitor book the official Forbidden City ticket?
Yes, a passport works in the Palace Museum's own booking channels for real-name registration, and the reservation is checked against that passport at the Meridian Gate. The practical obstacles are payment setup and the 20:00 release timing, not identity.