Beijing Forbidden City Small Group Tour With Tickets

Susan gave us a really good tour of the forbidden city and also arranged taxi and reserved table to an extraordinary Peking duck experience. She really was a good guide for us.

Excellent day, really informative and our guide Jessica was very helpful and informative

10 out of 10. The Forbidden City is beautiful on its own, but if you want to truly understand its soul, do yourself a favor and ask for Neo as your guide!

Susan was absolutely fantastic- great info and route keeping us to the side of the big groups of tours. Would definitely recommend.

This was a great experience. The tour company got in touch on WhatsApp as soon as week booked (several weeks in advance) and was happy to answer any questions leading up to the tour. There was also a message the day before with all the details we needed about meeting point etc. The tour itself was great - it is a huge site, so to cover everything would have taken at least a full day. Instead, the guide gave us lots of interesting information, taking us through the central path, without overloading us and keeping to time. He was very happy to answer any questions and also allowed time for taking pictures etc, even helping us taking photos. Throughout the tour he gave pointers and suggestions for other parts of the site to explore individually after, if we choose to.

We booked this tour because regular tickets for the Forbidden City were no longer available. Originally, we hadn’t planned to join a guided tour at all, but in the end, we were pleasantly surprised. We were initially told to meet at 8:00 AM, but shortly beforehand we were informed that the meeting time had been moved to 8:20 AM. The tour eventually started around 8:30 AM. We set off from a subway station and walked for about 15 minutes. The tour guide then purchased the tickets for us on site, and the actual guided tour began shortly after 9:00 AM. There were 18 people in our group, and the tour was conducted in English. Overall, it was very interesting. We were given small headphones, and the guide shared a lot of information along the way. It was definitely helpful, especially if you don’t want to walk through the Forbidden City without any context. Of course, it’s also possible to explore the site on your own, but there isn’t much information displayed on site. So unless you prepare very well in advance, a guided tour can be quite useful. The tour lasted until around 12:30 PM. It was a very warm day, and our feet were quite sore by the end, so for our taste it could have been a bit shorter. Some parts didn’t interest us as much, while we would have preferred to hear more about other topics—but that’s probably just a matter of personal preference. Overall, if you are interested in Chinese history, a guided tour is definitely a great choice.

Nice tour with a great guide. I learned a lot about Chinese history, and recommend this tour to others.

I appreciated the small group size of just 5 people (on Nov 21, 2025); it made navigating the Forbidden City easier. Our guide was great, he spoke naturally and clearly, showing us the complex in a respectful, informative, and agreeable manner. The pacing was also good, and we never felt rushed. Great tour, thanks!

Linda was very helpful, energetic and very kind. I can recommend this tour and Linda!!!! Thank you, I enjoyed it very much!!!!

Coco was amazing, very informative about the historical background to the establishment of the Forbidden Palace as well as the workings of the Palace itself. Anecdotes about daily life added colour and explained the life of women in the palace.

Forbidden city generelly is overrated attraction. Guide was very kind but whole 4 hours are too long for this empty space. I would recommend to fo 1-2 hours trip instead of 4. Was too long, too focused on small stories.

Our guide Amy was great. Very punctual, great knowledge about the Forbidden City and its history, and she covered lots of different areas in the tour. I really appreciated her keeping us in shaded spots whenever possible as it was extremely hot and most of sites are extremely exposed.

It was a great tour with a wonderful guide. We were told so much about this historic place and shown beautiful spots. Thank you, Linda

I was so glad to have joined a group tour when I visited the Forbidden City in May 2025. Our guide Linda is very knowledgeable and spoke excellent english. 600+ years of history came alive for me. Highly recommended, you won’t regret it.

Linda was the BEST! She has a very clear english accent, was very good explaining all the history and, the most important of all, was very nice to us and had a good-vibes smile always with her! I recommend 10/10 Linda as a tour guide!!

Linda was a amazing tourguide. She speak a perfect english and the tour was perfect. Very very recomendable. Thanks linda :)

The Forbidden City is amazing and it has a lot of history in it. Put me guide Linda has been able to take all of us inside the story, including lots of details that made the tour very engaging and with a nice human touch. She is very knowledgeable and speaks in a clear and understandable English. We really enjoyed the experience!

Amazing experience! The Forbidden City is breathtaking – so much history and beauty in one place. Our tour guide Linda was fantastic: knowledgeable, engaging, and passionate. Linda brought the whole place to life with stories and details we’d never notice on our own. Highly recommend both the site and the guided tour!

We were in the tour few days ago with Linda as our tour guide, she’s a very experienced and knowledgeable person, always check on us to see if we have another question for her . Learned lots of history from her! Thanks Linda!

Linda was good and patient, we had some late comers whom was able to join before we entered the forbidden city. She also dropped a whatsapp message the day before to make sure we're aware of the arrangements, requesting an acknowledgement of receiving the message. Learnt quite abit of the different areas and the thoughts behind the architecture. Linda was very assuring and accomodative, mentioning to others in the group of timings and if there's anything she can help to ensure they are able to meet their own travel timing plans. We over ran our tour timing as the crowd was big at entry and i had to leave earlier than the group. Had fun, remember to bring water, hat/ shades and good walking shoes.

Linda was a great guide. I’m glad I joined instead of visiting the Forbidden City alone because I would have missed out on tons of interesting stories and pieces of info that Linda shared as we walked.

The tour was efficient and presented the highlights of the Palace Museum (Forbidden City). The tour lasted about 3-1/2 hours from meeting point to end of tour. Linda was really friendly and had a nice sense of humor when telling the stories. Her personality was calm and delivery was comfortable and to my preference. She even provided direction on how to reach Jingshan Park and provided a lunch recommendation. I highly recommend this tour of the Palace Museum and having Linda as your guide.

Linda was a brilliant tour guide, she spoke clearly and was very informative about the history of the Forbidden City. We were a family of 9 and were joined by another couple. We only booked the day before but she contacted us promptly and helped us get the tickets on the day smoothly. The headsets worked well and we were able to hear well despite the crowds around. There was a lot of ground to cover as the Forbidden City is massive. But the pace was good, we had enough time to appreciate each area and she held the attention of the 13 year olds. They enjoyed the descriptions of the various animals and their symbolisms in particular. Linda also suggested good photo spots and made it a memorable family trip!

We booked a last minute tour with this company since our tour got cancelled due to the winds in Beijing the day before. They contacted us immediately and it was very easy. Our tour guide, Linda, was awesome. Perfectly clear english, very informative and interesting. Would definitely recommend them !

Thanks to Linda, we learned a lot about the history of the Forbidden City. An amazing tour and guide. If you want a kind guide, interesting tour and smooth ticket process, we can really recommend this to tour to you!

Linda our English speaking guide was amazing. Funny, patient and very knowledgeable. Our group was small (10 including guide). Meeting point was easy to find. Highly recommended

Linda was a lovely guide. We especially appreciated her knowledge and generosity in answering all our questions. And the route was very good too.

Wonderful Tour with a great Tourguide! She brought the chinese culture closer to me and learned alot about the Forbidden City. It was a very familiar beeing togheter due the small group. Every question i made, she answered it. I heartly reccommend this tour.

We did the tour with Linda and had a great time! Despite the cold winds today, she made the day very fun and interesting with all her knowledge. We would highly recommend :)

I have a great experience along with Wei, she was an amaizing guide tour, she know about the history, which for me was just great to learn so much!! My first time in China and Beijing, and for me was just great to have the possibility to enjoy the Forbbiden City tour walking with her and ask as many information as i could! But believe me! Not easy, too much to lear in just one morning! 🤩❤️ Thanks!! And also, she help me to get information around Beijing, she was just great guide!

We had Linda as our guide to the Forbidden City we all had such a great time, Linda was super friendly & easy to get on with & new everything there was to know about this attraction, highly recommend.

My son and I took the Happy Dragon, Forbidden City tour with Linda as our guide. I was last in the Forbidden City in 1989, and I was keen for my son to see it while we were in Beijing. I found Linda to be a font of knowledge, I thought I already knew a lot about the Forbidden City but she taught me so much more. Linda has a unique understanding of the history, and could answer every question I put to her, absolutely accurately I will add. She has a unique way of bringing the whole experience to life, she explained many of the palace intrigues that went on between the, emperors, eunuchs, wives, and courtesans, as well as how daily life played out for all the different groups. I can't recommend Linda more, if you want a unique perspective on this fascinating place, ask for Linda, she was amazing. Chris from New Zealand

You have to be prepared to walk. Everything is very fast. Ping, the guide cares a lot about the group and explains everything she can.

The visit was great. Excellent guide and very productive tour.

Coco was a very great guide! She knew a lot about the forbidden city and brought the historical stories to life in her stories. It was all very well organized and we got a good overview of the buildings and the history associated with this place. You should put on good, comfortable shoes, especially if you want to explore the forbidden city for yourself after the tour.

The Forbidden City or People's Museum is a huge space with several buildings. Although you cannot enter any of them, the visit takes at least 2 to 3 hours. Our guide was spectacular and explained the whole story with lots of detail. As in all the monuments, stacked of Chinese and tourists. Very hot in August. I recommend hat, water and comfortable shoes and start well early before the strongest heat.