Beijing Imperial Palace Tickets and Tours
Twenty listings for each palace and five that sell both, all of them eight hours or longer. Line 1 for one, Line 4 for the other, subway fares from 3 CNY, and one Monday closure that decides which palace you get.
Beijing is the only Chinese city in this catalogue, and its two great palaces sit at opposite ends of the subway map. The Forbidden City is entered from Line 1 at Tiananmen East, in the middle of the old city, through a single gate. The Summer Palace is a park at the north-west edge, three minutes from exit D at Beigongmen on Line 4. What separates them is not really the distance. It is that one of them closes every Monday, runs a morning and an afternoon session, and lets you out through a gate you did not come in by, while the other opens at six in the morning and has no closing day at all.
The two sites answer the question of how long they take in completely different ways. The Palace Museum publishes three options of its own, two hours, half a day or a whole one, and leaves the choice to you. The Summer Palace publishes nothing at all: the only figures that exist come from travel guides, and they range from a couple of hours to half a day. The market has made up its own mind anyway. The 20 listings attached to the Forbidden City run a median of 240 minutes. The 20 attached to the Summer Palace run a median of 480, because out there the palace is sold as one stop in a day that also takes the Temple of Heaven, the Lama Temple and a hutong.
That difference shows up in the money as well. A quarter of the Forbidden City listings cost 26.27 EUR or less. On the Summer Palace side the same quarter begins at 68.31, which is most of the way to the Forbidden City median. The short cheap visit is a thing you can buy in the middle of the city and mostly cannot buy at the far end of Line 4.
So the useful question in Beijing is not which palace is better. It is which one gets the front half of the day, and what the day of the week has already decided for you.
Choose a destination in Beijing
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Forbidden City
No same-day sale: each date goes on sale exactly seven days ahead at 20:00, one ticket per passport, and the museum states it plainly in both languages.
20 experiences -
Summer Palace
A municipal park with paying enclosures inside it. Simple entry is 30 CNY in high season and the combined ticket 60, while the three enclosures that ticket…
20 experiences
Castles Experiences in Beijing
Two Thousand Treasures in a Concubine's House, and a Guide in Spanish
Three and a half hours along the Central Axis with an English or Spanish guide, and the Treasure Gallery, 2,000 objects in a former concubine residence.
A Hall Built Without Nails, and 700 Years of Alley in Nanluoguxiang
A private day that adds the hutongs to the palaces, with a roast duck lunch between. On Mondays the Summer Palace or the Lama Temple stands in for the palace.
Every Stop Timed to the Minute, Including the Two Shopping Ones
Two hours in the palace, one at the Temple of Heaven, ninety minutes at the Summer Palace, back at five. A medicine shop and a pearl market are on the route.
If Only the Square Shows for Your Date, the Palace Is Sold Out
Three tickets sold separately: the palace, the square, or both. No paper and no QR code, you go in on your passport. The Forbidden City is shut on Mondays.
Ten People or the Date Moves, and Your Passport Details Must Match
Departs at 8:30, or 11:30 with Tiananmen Square added. Book over a week ahead and the tickets are bought online; book later and you queue with the guide.
Enter Any Time Between 6:30 and 15:30, and Stay Until They Close
The main ticket buys the lake and the landscape; the combined one opens Dehe Garden, Suzhou Street and the tower. The inner gardens shut before the park does.
The Canal the Court Used to Reach the Garden, If You Want the Boat
Two hours at the Temple of Heaven, or eight covering the Lama Temple, duck for lunch and the Summer Palace, with the Imperial Canal cruise as an optional extra.
Lunch Is Optional, the Palace Is at Half Past Eight, Home by Six
An 8am pickup, two hours in the Forbidden City before the crowds thicken, and the Chinese lunch left as an option rather than billed to everyone.
The QR Code Comes a Week Early and Is Checked Inside, Not Just at the Gate
A regular ticket covers the lakes and pavilions; the combination one opens the opera house, the tower, Suzhou Street and the museum, all shut on Mondays.
Four Architectures in One Temple, and the Jade Stop Is Declared
Han, Mongol, Manchu and Tibetan building in one temple, then the Summer Palace and the pandas. A jade store and a tea house are also on the route.
Nine Hours, Four Imperial Sites, and the Pearl Market in Between
Nine hours covering the square, the palace, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, with a Chinese lunch. Pickup is from hotels inside the 4th Ring Road.
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