Beijing 101 - Visiting Forbidden City, the Palace Museum

What to do in Beijing? Two of the must-visits when in Beijing must be Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.


This is part two of my Beijing 101 entry on my visit to Beijing...
(Check out the first one on local food that I tried: Beijing 101 Local Food at http://ginsengtonic.blogspot.com/2011/04/beijing-101-local-food.html)

Unfortunately due to time constraints, I had to choose between visiting Great Wall of China and Forbidden City as I only had one full free day to see the city. Well, if you have one free day, you could actually visit BOTH, if you want to. They have tours to do that. 


But if you... like me... don't like the rush of a tour group and visit for the sake of visiting kind... it may be better to take a pick... I actually spent four hours at forbidden city!


Took quite a few pictures.. so looks like I'll be breaking it into a few entries...




Here are some of the views from outside the palace...
The waters were really still at time and it was a beautiful sight watching the reflections...
And it's still the outside only.. you don't even pay anything yet...

Forbidden City exterior - ginsengtonic.blogspot.com

More pictures...

Beijing forbidden city lake - ginsengtonic.blogspot.com

Picture of the other side of the lake/river of forbidden city

Greenery by forbidden city in Beijing - ginsentonic.blogspot.com

Enough of trying to play around with the camera and experimenting with reflections...

Forbidden City Beijing

By the way.. I came from East gate (I think) which explained the view of the lake (that's what I'm calling it) and the scenic walk... a pity Wifey didn't join me for this Beijing trip....




Entering into the main/front of the Forbidden City... (still outside the ticketing area)

Forbidden City Beijing - ginsengtonic.blogspot.com

Entering to the central/ticketing area of Beijing's palace museum

Palace Museum in Beijing

Front view of Place museum from the outside

Palace Museum in Beijing

If you can help it.. try not to go on a weekend.

Be prepared for the crowd..

And the pushing and shoving... I'm not kidding!!

Pushing and Shoving!!!... at certain spots where you have to peep into certain parts of the palace..

Full of tour groups, from overseas tourists to even locals from other parts of the country..

Crowd at forbidden city beijing

crowd at palace museum beijing

View of the other side

Anyway, the ticketing office is on the right side if you are facing Forbidden City. 
Tickets are honestly very reasonable.
It's at 60yuan which is about slightly less than S$11.50 to visit a place of such history.

Tickets to Forbidden City - ginsengtonic.blogspot.com

Entrance to forbidden city

That's all for now. Will update and blog more about the interior in subsequent entries =)




--Ginseng Tonic Maker-- Time to brush up my Chinese!