Forbidden City & Great Wall: What to Know Before You Go
These two are the headline acts of any first trip to Beijing, and they work well together: one is a walled palace complex in the middle of the city, the other a mountain ridge an hour or two outside it. Here is the practical information you need for both, kept to what is verifiable.
Basic Information
The Forbidden City is the palace complex at the centre of Beijing, officially known today as the Palace Museum. It is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it holds China's largest surviving collection of imperial architecture — roughly 980 buildings arranged on a strict north–south axis.
The Great Wall is not one wall but a network of fortifications built and rebuilt across northern China over many centuries. The sections most visitors reach from Beijing are Badaling, Mutianyu, Jinshanling and Simatai. Badaling and Mutianyu are the two most commonly visited, and both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the Great Wall listing.
Where They Are and How to Get There
The Forbidden City sits in Dongcheng District, at the northern end of Tiananmen Square. The address is 4 Jingshan Front Street. The simplest way in is by subway: Line 1 to Tiananmen East or Tiananmen West, then walk north through the square to the Meridian Gate, which is the only entrance for visitors. The exit is at the north end, on Jingshan Front Street, opposite Jingshan Park. Buses also stop along Chang'an Avenue, but the subway avoids the traffic.
Badaling is about 70 km northwest of central Beijing, in Yanqing District. You can get there by the S2 suburban railway from Huangtucu station, or by the dedicated tourist buses that leave from near Deshengmen and Qianmen. Mutianyu is around 70 km northeast, in Huairou District, and has no direct train — most people take a bus from Dongzhimen long-distance station, join a tour, or hire a car and driver. Jinshanling and Simatai are further out, in Luanping County, Hebei Province, and realistically need a car or an organised trip.
History
The Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420 under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty, using labour said to have drawn on a million workers and craftsmen. It served as the imperial palace for 24 emperors — 14 Ming and 10 Qing — until 1912, when the last emperor abdicated. The Palace Museum opened to the public in 1925. Large parts of the complex have been restored over the past two decades, and several halls reopen to visitors each year as work is completed.
The Great Wall's story runs much longer. Early walls were built by separate states in the Warring States period, then joined and extended under Qin Shi Huang around 220 BC. The brick-and-stone walls you walk on today are largely Ming dynasty work, built between the 14th and 17th centuries to defend the northern frontier. Badaling was restored and opened to visitors in 1957; Mutianyu opened in 1987.
What to See Inside
At the Forbidden City, the route runs south to north. You enter through the Meridian Gate, cross the Golden Water Bridge, and pass through the Gate of Supreme Harmony into the vast courtyard of the Hall of Supreme Harmony — the largest hall in the complex, used for the grandest state ceremonies. Behind it are the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. Beyond the Gate of Heavenly Purity lies the Inner Court, where the emperor and his household lived: the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the small imperial gardens at the north end. The side galleries hold the museum's ceramics, clocks, paintings and bronzes, and are usually far quieter than the central