To visit Beijing and not visit the Forbidden City is the same as not visiting the Red Square in Moscow or the Palace Square in St. Petersburg.
This is a great place with cool architecture, locations, exhibitions. There are two options for visiting - before lunch and after. Tickets must be booked on the official website a week in advance, they can be redeemed immediately before entering the Gugun. There are cases when tourists manage to get a ticket day in, day out, so if you did not have time to book tickets in advance, check at the ticket office, maybe you will be lucky.
If you did not manage to get into the city, you will be able to see it from the observation deck of the neighboring Jingshan Park, emotions are different, of course, but you will also get the scale and general understanding. The park is located north of Gugun, across the street.
Tickets to the Forbidden City also give you the right to visit Tiananmen Square.
I definitely recommend it
Wow!!! It's very atmospheric. To visit is definitely "yes"!
Tickets must be booked in advance. Passport clearance.
The Forbidden City (Chinese: upr. 紫禁城, pinyin ZǐJìnchéng, palla. Zijincheng, literally: "Purple Forbidden City"; nowadays it is usually called kit. upr. 故宫, pinyin GùgōNg, palla. Googun, literally: "The former Palace"[1]) is the most extensive palace complex in the world (961 x 753 meters, 720 thousand m2, 980 buildings)[2]. It is located in the center of Beijing, north of the main Tiananmen Square and east of the lake district (the residence of the country's modern leaders).
We fell in love with Beijing! According to my impressions, the Forbidden City and the Chinese Wall are equivalent, despite the completely different content, but the emotions are off the charts! The first time we didn't get to the Forbidden City, they just wouldn't let us in, there were no tickets. But we were on our way to Tiananmen Square, and, as it turned out later, we reached the entrance to Gugong. We were then helped to book an excursion to the City at the reception desk at the hotel and only on the fourth day, it is so popular. It was Saturday, and there were a lot of visitors! We have never seen so many girls, women and girls in beautiful national clothes in one place in Beijing, it adds to the entertainment, as if it inspires a lively spirit in this museum city! Such a large number of people did not shake or interfere with the viewing. We walked for a long time, using the signs that often came across on the way. We passed through the center of the city, where the main residences of the emperor were, we hardly looked at the right side, preferring the left wing and did not lose! They sat down to rest in a very cozy enclosed courtyard. Later, while sharing their impressions, it turned out that both of them had pictures coming to life in this courtyard, and people were running in front of their eyes....Everyone was minding their own business and everyone was in their place! Amazing sensations! But I saw summer, and my husband saw winter. Returning along the left wing, we found several exhibition halls where there were very few people and it was sooo interesting! There was a lot of pottery in one of them, dating back to 600 AD. Somewhere they even saw a composition of two terracotta warriors and a terracotta horse, from that very army. All kinds of furniture and carved gates of unreal beauty were displayed in one hall.