Tickets and booking
Every ticket — main entry, Treasure Gallery, Clock Gallery and special exhibitions — is reserved in advance through the official Palace Museum mini-program. There are no same-day tickets, and every visitor must book under their real name, including concession holders and accompanying adults. Reservations open 7 days before the visit at 20:00, and one ID can hold only one ticket per day. Mainland visitors book with their ID card; non-mainland visitors use a Hong Kong/Macau Home Return Permit, a Taiwan Compatriot Pass, a Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan residence permit, a foreign permanent residence ID card, or a passport. Bring the original document you booked with — it is checked at the gate.
The museum closes on Mondays except statutory holidays. Unused tickets can be cancelled through the original booking channel until 24:00 the night before with no penalty; cancelling before 20:00 on the visit day counts as one no-show, and after 20:00 there is no refund and a no-show is recorded. Checked-in tickets are non-refundable. Three no-shows within 180 days blocks new reservations for 60 days from the day after the third. Some exhibitions require a separate reservation, and annual-pass holders must register their visit at least one day ahead. The service line is 4009501925.
Entrance and routes
All visitors enter through the Meridian Gate, the Palace Museum’s south gate, at 4 Jingshan Front Street in Dongcheng District — the original ID used for the reservation is checked there. The documented approach runs from Tiananmen East: from the subway station (Line 1) or the bus stops there, it is roughly a 900-metre walk to the gate. No other entrance is listed, so build the arrival plan around the south side. Since the museum has no car park of its own, arriving on foot from public transport is the practical default.
Photo spots
The data pack does not catalogue viewpoints inside the museum, so treat this as framing rather than a shot list. What it does pin down: every visit begins at the Meridian Gate, the south-gate checkpoint, and the two named destinations inside are the Treasure Gallery and the Clock Gallery, both ticketed add-ons at 10 RMB. The roughly 900-metre walk from Tiananmen East is the fixed opening sequence on foot.
Daylight is the other constraint the pack fixes: gates close at 17:00 in the summer season and 16:30 in winter, with last admission one hour before closing in both cases. A visit budgeted at 3+ hours therefore ends by mid-afternoon at the latest in winter — schedule photography inside that window rather than after it.
Timing and crowds
Two schedules apply. 1 April–31 October: open 08:30–17:00, last entry 16:00, Tuesday–Sunday. 1 November–31 March: open 08:30–16:30, last entry 15:30, Tuesday–Sunday. Mondays are closed year-round except statutory holidays. The museum’s suggested duration is 3 hours or more, so to actually use that time, entry by around 14:00 is needed in summer and by about 13:30 in winter — earlier is the reliable move.
The pack contains no attendance or crowd data, so no claim about busy or quiet times can be made beyond the Monday closure. The hard timing constraint is administrative: the booking window opens 7 days ahead at 20:00 and same-day tickets do not exist, so the visit date has to be locked in before the day itself.
Walking and effort
The museum rates a visit at 3 hours or more, which makes this a walking-heavy sight by definition. The only distance the pack quantifies is the approach: about 900 metres on foot from Tiananmen East to the Meridian Gate. No internal route lengths, step counts or terrain notes are published, so treat the 3-hour floor as the honest measure of effort and plan footwear accordingly.
Getting there
Subway: take Line 1 to Tiananmen East and walk roughly 900 metres to the Meridian Gate, the south entrance. Bus: routes 1, 2, 52 and 120, plus Sightseeing Lines 1 and 2, serve the Tiananmen East stop, with the same 900-metre walk. Driving is not recommended: the Palace Museum has no car park and nearby public parking is some distance away, so public transport plus the short walk is the practical default.
Cost breakdown
Main ticket: 60 RMB in peak season (1 April–31 October) and 40 RMB off-season (1 November–31 March). The Treasure Gallery and the Clock Gallery cost 10 RMB each in both seasons. Half price: students aged 18 and over in bachelor’s programmes or below (adult education excluded) pay 20 RMB for the main ticket and 5 RMB per gallery year-round, with student ID and a school introduction letter checked at entry; visitors aged 60 and over pay 30 RMB peak / 20 RMB off-season for the main ticket and 5 RMB per gallery on showing a valid original ID; holders of a Beijing social-security allowance certificate also qualify. Women enter half price on 8 March, and on 1 June one accompanying parent per under-14 child gets half price — both shifted one day earlier when they fall on a Monday.
Free entry (reservation still required): Chinese citizens under 18, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents and foreigners with permanent residence; visitors with disabilities (companions pay full price); retired cadres with their certificate; and on Army Day, 1 August (moved a day earlier if it falls on a Monday), serving and retired military personnel, fire and rescue personnel, and eligible military families with valid credentials. Under-14s must be accompanied by an adult, one adult to at most three children. Tickets are valid only on the reserved day and cannot be refunded once checked.
