The Forbidden City does not sell tickets at the gate. Every visitor, Chinese or foreign, must reserve online in advance with a real identity document — and for a foreign visitor that document is your passport. The Palace Museum states plainly on its English site that it "does not sell tickets on the day of your visit," so a trip to Beijing planned around walking up to Meridian Gate and buying a ticket will end at the fence.
The good news is that the foreigner path is simpler than most guides suggest: one passport number, one booking window, one entry gate. The hard part is timing, because the release moment is fixed to Beijing time and the popular dates disappear fast.
Who needs a ticket, and what a foreign passport changes
Everyone entering the Palace Museum needs a reserved ticket, including children. The free-admission rule for visitors under 18 applies to Chinese citizens — including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, and foreigners with Chinese permanent residence — not to ordinary foreign passport holders. If you are travelling with children on foreign passports, budget a ticket for each of them.
Foreign visitors book with a passport number rather than a Chinese ID card. The official booking site accepts passport details and warns when a passport number has already been used: the message "This passport number has already been purchased" appears when the same document is tied to an existing order. That is a useful signal: it means one passport, one booking per visit date, so do not let a friend reserve "a spare" on your number.
When tickets drop: the 7-day, 20:00 Beijing rule
The official ticket notice states that big tickets, Treasure Hall and Watch Hall tickets, and exhibitions are released "from 20:00 before the 7th day of visit" and are valid only on the day of the visit. In practice that means the booking window for a given date opens at 20:00 Beijing time (UTC+8) seven days ahead, and the release is not a queue you can join late.
For a traveller outside China, convert once and set an alarm:
- Beijing 20:00 = 12:00 UTC.
- London: 13:00 in summer time, 12:00 in winter time.
- New York: 08:00 in summer time, 07:00 in winter time.
- Los Angeles: 05:00 in summer time, 04:00 in winter time.
- Sydney: 22:00 in Australian Eastern Standard Time, 23:00 during daylight saving.
Because the clock shifts with daylight saving in your own country, the safe habit is to compute from 12:00 UTC rather than from a fixed local hour. The museum's own booking notice also mentions a high-traffic warning on the booking homepage, which is a fair description of what the first minutes look like on peak dates.
The passport field, step by step
The whole booking flow happens on the official site bookingticket.dpm.org.cn, which has an English interface. A workable sequence:
- Open the booking site and choose the visit date. If the date is not yet inside the 7-day window, it will not be bookable — this is normal, not an error.
- Choose the big ticket (CNY 60 in peak season, CNY 40 in off-season) and add the Treasure Hall (CNY 10) or Watch Hall (CNY 10) if you want them. These are separate paid halls inside the museum.
- Enter your name and passport number exactly as printed on the passport. Name order and spacing cause most failed check-ins; copy from the document rather than from memory.
- Complete payment with the options shown at checkout. Payment methods are displayed by the platform at the payment step, so check what is offered on your booking day instead of assuming a card will work.
- Keep the confirmation and the passport you booked with. Entry is through Meridian Gate (the south gate), where the document is checked.
The museum asks all visitors to bring valid identification for booking and for check-in, and entry is through Meridian Gate. There is no will-call desk that will swap a booking to a different passport.
The English portal signs you in with an email address and a verification code rather than a mainland phone number, which is why it is the route most foreign bookings take. The rest of the day still assumes a working phone, so treat payments, data and transit as pre-flight tasks: the China travel guide covers that set-up.
Opening times, sessions and the Monday closure
The museum opens for admission at 8:30. Morning-session tickets are checked by 12:00 noon, and afternoon-session checks begin at 11:00. The Palace Museum is closed on Mondays except for statutory holidays, and it is also closed on the eve of Chinese New Year; irregular closures are announced on the official site.
Two current notices worth checking before you finalise a date: the Hall of Martial Valor (Wuyingdian) closed from 19 October 2026 under a restoration and display programme, and the Palace of Prolonging Happiness (Yanxi Palace) is closed for survey work from 1 September to 31 October 2026, reopening on 1 November. Neither closes the museum, but both remove a room from your plan.
Peak season runs from 1 April to 31 October; off-season runs from 1 November to 31 March. Ticket prices follow the same split, so a November trip pays less for the same walls.
If the date is sold out
Sold out means sold out for that date, not for the trip. The reference facts — gates, hours, the price line — sit on our Forbidden City destination page. What follows is what to do with a fixed date. Options that actually work:
- Move the visit by a day or two. Weekdays outside school holidays are the easiest swaps.
- Book the big ticket only and skip the paid halls — they sell out separately and can be the difference between a booking and a blank screen.
- Use the day for Jingshan Park, immediately north of the museum, where the view over the palace roofs is the classic replacement; the Working People's Cultural Palace and the National Museum of China are nearby alternatives, though the National Museum also requires advance reservation.
- If the trip is fixed and the palace is the point, plan the Beijing leg around the release date rather than around the flight date.
Cancellations do return inventory, but the museum limits them: no more than one cancellation per person per day, and after three cancellations within 180 days a visitor cannot book tickets or exhibitions for 60 days. Cancelling casually to "try again tomorrow" is a losing strategy.
Common rejections and how to fix them
- "This passport number has already been purchased." The document is already on an order for that date. Check your own booking history before creating a second one.
- Name mismatch. Re-enter the name and number directly from the passport data page; middle names and spacing must match the document.
- Date not bookable. You are outside the 7-day window, or the date is genuinely sold out. The site does not distinguish these for you.
- Arriving without a booking. There is no same-day ticket sale. The only fix is a later date.
For ticketing questions the museum lists the booking email [email protected] and the customer-service line 400-950-1925, open 08:00–20:00 year-round.
If the dates are locked and the release window does not line up with the flight, send them through Plan My Trip. We do not hold, resell or guarantee tickets; we tell you which date to aim for and what the day looks like if the palace is full.
FAQ
Can I buy a Forbidden City ticket at the gate?
No. The Palace Museum does not sell tickets on the day of your visit; every visitor must reserve in advance with a valid identity document, and foreign visitors use their passport.
Do foreign children need their own ticket?
Yes. The free-admission policy for under-18s covers Chinese citizens and foreigners with Chinese permanent residence. A child on a foreign passport needs a reserved ticket.
Can I use the same passport for two different days?
You can book different visit dates, but each date needs its own reservation, and the same passport cannot hold duplicate bookings for the same date. Keep the passport you booked with — it is checked at Meridian Gate.
References
- The Palace Museum — Visit (opening hours, ticket prices, closures), retrieved 2026-10-23
- The Palace Museum (English) — Visit, no same-day ticket sales, retrieved 2026-10-23
- The Palace Museum — official ticket booking site, 7-day 20:00 release notice, retrieved 2026-10-23
- The Palace Museum (English) — homepage, retrieved 2026-10-23
