Guests can be dropped off directly at Donghuamen. Follow the city moat on foot for approximately 8 minutes until you reach Meridian Gate (Wumen), the sole official entry and security checkpoint for the Forbidden City. Important: Donghuamen functions only as an exit. Entry to the Forbidden City is NOT permitted at Donghuamen. Please proceed on foot to Meridian Gate for security and ticket verification. What You Need to Know ⚠️ Avoid traveling through Tiananmen Square to reach Meridian Gate A separate real‑name reservation for Tiananmen Square is mandatory and must be booked at least 1 day ahead. Your Forbidden City group tour ticket does NOT include access to Tiananmen Square. For the Forbidden City group tour opiton The meeting Point: Kapok Hotel Donghuamen (Near the Donghuamen‑East Gate of the Forbidden City)
After booking with your passport name and number (for all participants), you can access to the Forbidden City directly through the security check and by showing your passport at the main entrance, Meridian Gate. Forbidden City Schedule: • Peak Season: April 1st to October 31st (Tuesday to Sunday) - Last Entry is at 16:00 • Summer Vacation: July to August (Monday to Sunday) - Last Entry is at 16:00 • Slow Season: November 1st to March 31st (Tuesday to Sunday) - Last Entry is at 15:30 Please note: • This is pre booking service, the comfirmation will send 6 days before the tour date. • Passport name and number is required at time of booking for “all participants” upon booking • This ticket product offers you direct entry to Forbidden City with your Passport • Please note that Chinese nationals including visitors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan must book tickets 7 days in advance for the Forbidden City. We cannot accept any bookings made within 7 days of the visit date.
The Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohe Dian) is the last main hall in the Outer Court.
The Gate of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Men) separates the palace into the Outer and Inner Court. Behind the gate is the residential area of the palace.
The two chambers in the east were changed into bridal rooms for the emperor and empress; while the remaining four chambers were used as a place of worship.
Behind the Hall of Earthly Tranquility is the Imperial Garden where the imperial family members recreated themselves.
Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian) also called 'Hall of Golden Throne', is the grandest hall in the palace and the largest wooden structure in China.
Great tour, Lisa was an excellent guide with lots of great stories to tell and also very understanding of our requests. The tour was perfectly timed and communication was excellent from the start. We went though the side entrance which also saved time.
Lotus was an amazing guide. Amazing tour, thank you
Great experience and communication with the provider. Allows to avoid the crowds. Very detailed instructions. Thanks!
Very nice tour with Sofia. She was very deep in the history facts and show is a lot of details from the forbidden city. Well done !
Great experience! Jeffrey was an amazing guide, he provided not only facts and descriptions about the forbidden city but also context on the history and daily life at the palace. He also didn’t rush the group to move ahead and left time to explore some of the museums within the palace. Highly recommend as well taking the earlier time, as it was significantly less crowded.
Lydia was a fantastic guide - very engaging and got us through all the checkpoints
My girlfriend and I enjoyed our time during this tour. Lydia was kind and generous with her knowledge and insight of the city. I would book other tour with her in Beijing :)
Had a wonderful time with Lydia she was super welcoming and very informative! She took us to quieter areas so we could admire the Forbidden City in peace and was super patient with the group despite all the delays in traffic! I learnt a lot and recommend this tour!
Lydia was a great guide, she took us through the history of tiananmen square and the forbidden city with many tellings about the their story ! Recommended your guide
I really enjoyed this tour. Our guide,Lydia, was very knowledgeable and patient. The value exceeded the price. Well done
Fantastic and educational. Lydia our guide made the whole experience fabulous. Highly recommend, must do!
We chose this tour because we wanted to visit Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and Temple of Heaven through the experience and knowledge of a guide and we are more than happy of our choice. Lydia is well prepared, explained us everything and she's really a nice person. Highly recommended. The price is more than perfect for the length of the visit. A plus was that we avoided the crowd and queues!
I am really excited for this tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and her English was perfect. If you want to know more about The Palace Museum, I recommend you to take a part in this tour. Also If you want to know more about Chinese culture, guide will tell you something you didn’t know. Admission fee is pretty nice for students. All of the tour lasts about 3 hours, so people, who loves walking will love it.
She was an excelent guide. We appreciate her attention and her perfect explanations. Thank you so much Lydia!
Lydia is such a wonderful guide. Very knowledgeable, eager to answer questions and organized. She organizes enough time during the visit for pictures and bathroom breaks. I would definitely recommend getting her as your guide.
What a wonderful tour! We really enjoyed our visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.A special hats-off to Lydia, who did an amazing job bringing people from different countries together and making us feel like one big family. The tour was very interactive, well organised, and completely hassle free. Lydia patiently explained the fascinating history of China, from the ancient dynasties right through to modern China. She was always happy to listen to our questions and took the time to answer them clearly and thoughtfully.This tour package is highly recommended for anyone visiting Beijing. And if Lydia is your tour guide, you’re definitely in for an even better experience!
Fantastic tour of the Square and The Forbidden City. The guide Lydia was brilliant. Spoke perfect English and navigated the trip perfectly especially as it was extremely busy due to it being the weekend in Golden week. Would definitely recommend booking this tour
The trip was really nice especialy our tourguide Lydia, who also brougt us by metro to the temple of heaven Greetings form Heidi and Feli form Holland
Excellent! I was worried about trying to figure out how to get tickets when they release one week before and run out quickly so this was perfect for me! I came during the Autumn holiday (busiest travel time) and didn’t think I would get a ticket. Grateful for the service and details instructions !
Sophia was fantastic and really helpful....she knew all the history by heart and answered many other historical questions. I would highly recommend her as a guide
The meeting point for this join-in tour was straightforward to locate, and the guide did a great job checking in on our arrival beforehand (though a slightly larger buffer between meeting time and start time would help). She navigated security, ticketing, photo spots, and timing really well over the 3.5-hour tour. However, her English was very hard to understand, which limited overall group engagement and deeper historical understanding. I appreciated her use of visual aides as these are memorable and helped in understanding. English-speaking travelers should know that while the route management and entry into the Forbidden City are handled very smoothly, the guided commentary in English may leave you missing key content.
Lydia is SUPER. It's very interesting, we really enjoyed the trip. She gave a lot of interesting news.
It was a very interesting tour. Lydia is an exceptional guide. She is very good at explaining the history behind the places we’ve seen. I strongly recommend this tour guide.
Best experience whit Lidia. So much info and interestjng story tell.
Lydia is an amazing guide, very knowledgeable. Defenitely recommended. ❤️❤️
Lydia was amazing. Beautiful spots that we would not have seen or understood alone, I strongly suggest this tour.
Lydia was an amazing guide, very knowledgeable and kind.
Lydia was really kind and gave us an amazing journey and explanation on the tour
Sophia was really nice guide,she was patient and gentle. She explained the historical facts really well so even people with a poor english understanding skill could partecipate.
Lydia was an exceptional guide. Her English was easy to understand. The use of individual ear piece was great. easy to hear. Information provided was good. Group of 14 was easy for her to manage, until I got separated for a short while. I could hear her so knew she was close. After the tour, as a solo traveller she made sure I was safely in the DiDi before she headed off to finish her day. I would recommend this tour and if you get Lydia, you are on a winner.
Lydia, best guide ever, ask for her for any other tour!!!
Sofia was very king guide, the tour was well organized !
our tour of Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City was amazing despite the sudden rain. Highly recommend our guide! thank you Lydia!
Lydia was so friendly & knowledgeable, about all the history, she took us on a tour through the forbidden city, and Tiaman square. I Highly recommend this tour.
Sofia was an amazing guide, thank you so much
Booked the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden city, Temple of Heaven tour and it was an amazing day made great by Lydia our tour guide. The booking process was straightforward online. The information provided by email was very precise and accurate. On the morning of the tour we met with our group and with Lydia the tour guide who kindly guided us through the whole process of the day. We initially visited Tianamen Square and here Lydia was very informative and helped ease the process of the checks that occur. Having Lydia here made the whole process very easy and straightforward. When we visited the forbidden city the information Lydia provided was so descriptive that it felt like you could imagine how the emperor’s lived during their time there. Lydia as a tour guide is excellent and provided the information at an appropriate amount and level. As well as this Lydia provided break opportunities to get drinks as well photos at specific sites and areas. Overall the entire day was amazing and I would definitely encourage people to book this online for ease and if you have the opportunity to meet Lydia as a tour guide she’s fantastic and made our visit such a great and pleasurable memory.
Lydia was very professional and kind! The tour in Tian’an men square and the forbidden city was incredible
This tour is fantastic. Lydia is excellent with English and very helpful. I learnt alot from this tour.
Thank you Lydia for a nice day! Very nice tour, would recommend!
We had a great experience with Lydia as our guide. It was a friendly and informative tour.
Sofia, was our guide! thank you😢
We visited in September and I was great, guide was clear and helpful
Very good experience! Recomend it!
Would recommend this service for booking the forbidden city. No issues with getting tickets and entering the palace.
This tour was a great thing to do. Lydia spoke very good English and was very clear with information, organised with ear pieces so we could all hear clearly. I’m glad we chose to do this instead as a tour and not on our own . I would definitely advise taking plenty of water
Sofia very good guide and informative
Sofia was a great tour guide! We learned a lot about the forbidden city, even on my 4th time visiting. Would visit again 😁
Sophia did a great job for the visit, thanks to her
It was a really interesting tour, well-organized, and never a dull moment. Our guide Lydia was super helpful and very nice. Highly recommended!
I had a wonderful experience with our tour guide during our visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Lydia was friendly, knowledgeable, and explained the history and important details clearly throughout the tour. Everything was well organized, and she made the whole experience enjoyable and stress-free. I was very happy and satisfied with the service. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Beijing and wanting to learn more about these amazing historical sites!
Monday through Friday 9 am to 7 pm EST
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