The Palace Museum

The Palace Museum is a special World Cultural Heritage, the largest comprehensive art museum of ancient Chinese culture, a pride for the Chinese nation, a precious cultural legacy for all human beings, built on the largest and most well-preserved wooden structure palace complex - Forbidden City of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The massive royal palaces are now a huge treasure with innumerable priceless gems from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as living fossils of Chinese imperial history.

Both serving as the Forbidden City's protection administration as well as a collection, research, and exhibition institution for all ancient Chinese cultural and historical relics from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and other periods, the Palace Museum has the most complete and best quality collections of 25 main categories totaling over 1,800,000 artifacts, 8,000 first grade items.

The imperial palaces finally open to the public after 500 years of historical turmoil. Following the central axis and visiting, palaces or halls on both sides is the most suggested tour route. Cining Palace Garden (Garden of Compassion and Tranquility), Shoukang Palace (Palace of Longevity and Health), Taihe Palace (Hall of Supreme Harmony), Qianqing Palace (Palace of Heavenly Purity), and others are the perfect blending of delicate preserved-relic and antique constructions.

Apart from palace visits, there are ten permanent galleries, including the Gallery of Ceramics, Calligraphy & Painting, Bronze, Treasure, Qing Imperial Opera, Jade(closed now), Sculpture, Historic Architecture, Hall of Clocks, Digital Gallery, and Kulangsu Gallery of Foreign Artifacts from the Palace Collection. Furthermore, Palace Museum hosts several exceptional temporary exhibitions on unique cultural subjects, as well as out-of-town shows to showcase the museum's magnificent holdings and foster cultural interchange with other cities.

Location: No.4 Jingshan Front Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing City

Website: en.dpm.org.cn