Forbidden City (Imperial Palace)
- Address:4 Jingshan Qianjie, Beijing
- Hours:Open daily
- Admission:Free
Cultural Experience, Must-Do Experience, UNESCO Heritage Site, Palace
Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) Reviews
We've found 21 Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Jackie Li was our guide for this tour which we completed with one other couple. He willingly shared his detailed knowlegde of all the site's seen and is obviously a very proud Chinaman. Unfortunately, at times, we found his pronounciations of some English words difficult to comprehend, and his practice of giving us his 'orations' then quickly turning to head off to the next point of interest, left very limited opportunities for us to seek clarifications of what he had said and /or to ask questions. That said, both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City are much larger than I had expected and well worth seeing. Both my wife and I found the tour to be most informative.
Note from Viator: Note from Viator: Thank you for your review. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced during your tour. We have contacted the tour company and have addressed your concern about guide's English skills with them. Thank you for helping us ensure the quality of our tours.
Throughout my two week trip in China, I was most looking forward to the historical side of Beijing, primarily Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I had learned a lot about China's history and it had always fascinated me. I truly wanted a private experience (where I could pester the guide with tons of questions) and this tour delivered! My guide was an expert on all things China and answered all my questions and gave me more insight than I had expected to receive. All at such a great price too!
Great tour at an unbeatable price! I'm so glad we chose this option. It was our first time in China and this was a great introduction for us. It covered all the basics - Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace and Forbidden City. It was the perfect mix between the must-see "tourist" attractions and cultural immersion we would not have been able to do on our own. Great sights, friendly people and amazing country!
The guide -another Michael- was quite nice. It was a VIP-Tour ;) Only me, the driver and Michael! First we visited the Tiananmen-Square, then the forbidden city. He arranged it very interesting. Next stop was a silk-factory. Also very interesting and they didn´t force you to buy something. Then lunch - combined with a jade-factory in the middle of nowhere! It was awful!!! I have been left alone with the most horrible food I ever had. I felt like caged in this factory! After 15 minutes I left the room with the workers through a servants` exit. Then I had to wait 15 minutes for the pick up through my guide, HORRIBLE - never would do this again. After this we went to a different place of the wall (he told me in the car - Badaling would be crowded!). In Juyongguan I climbed the wall and it was worth whole day suffering ;)! To come to a conclusion: Be sure not to visit the Jade factory and all will be fine!
Note from Viator: Note from Viator: Thank you for your review. We apologize for the dissatisfaction of meal you may have experienced during your tour. We have contacted the tour company and have addressed your concern with them. Thank you for helping us ensure the quality of our tours.
The forbidden palace was a bit of a disapointment as only a few rooms were seen on the tour. The guide was great.
My tour with Mr. Jimmy Li was an excellent 1 day tour. I appreciate that I was able to visit all three venues the same day-Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall. There were five other persons on this tour and it was a good group. Mr Li did a great lecture on each venue as well as answering questions. Our Chinese lunch was delicious and the jade and silk demonstrations were good. I would highly recommend this tour if you have only 1 day to spend in Beijing. The time at the Great Wall was adaquate as was the other venues. The transportation and driver was good as well. Thanks for the good communications on the meeting place and pick up time. Arrived back at my hotel on time.
I was the only one on this tour on the particular day and Jackie was really great - he was flexible and was fine with me taking more time than planned at certain places. This tour was also shorter than stated in the itinerary but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jackie had lots of information and knowledge. Only suggestion would be that we could be given some free time in Forbidden City to wander around and do our own thing.
very busy day started at the wall was very busy, then visited Tiananmen square and Forbidden City was brilliant so much history
On the whole it was very good but I felt short-changed at Tiananmen Square. We basically walked across it without an commentary or getting to stop to look around. That could have partly been because of the weather which was very, very cold and windy. Thoroughly enjoyed the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. A little more time to explore on our own would have been nice and less time at the Silk Factory. The buffet was horrible. Thomas, our guide, was very informative and helpful.
There were supposed to be 5 people on this tour but 3 canceled so it ended up being just my husband and me! Our guide Tony spoke English fluently and was very knowledgeable! We didn't end up going to Badaling because it was a Sunday and a lot of people would be there so we went to a quieter part of the Great Wall instead although it was steeper to climb. We were given a choice and chose this one, the right choice I think but there was still quite a lot of people there! Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square were also great places to visit but be warned as there is about 4km worth of walking on this part. If you tire easily, especially after climbing the Great Wall, you might want to think about saving this visit for another day. We visited a jade, silk and cloisonne gallery which was interesting. No pressure to buy at all but we did grab some nice souvenirs!
For those tourists who want to visit Beijing and take home many souvenirs, this tour may be excellent for you.
But as this was not my family nor my intention, we did not enjoy this tour as much as others might.
We felt very pressured by out tour guide to purchase at the myriad of stores and factories we stopped at during our 'Beijing tour'. I was even thrown into an argument at the tea house we visited because the attendant was outraged that we didn't want to spend our money in her tea house, even though we'd already paid for a tour. At another point in our tour-- in the jade factory-- our tour guide began negotiationg prices with us as if he were a salesman and not a tour guide.
I felt a little like an exploited American during this tour.
I think we spent a combined total of three hours at the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden city-- the 1.5 hours we had to spend at the Great Wall was certainly not enough. The rest of our time was spent shopping.
We went along the Great Wall by ourselves, without the insight of a guide, it would have been nice to have his insights during that time.
I would not recommend this tour to those tourists who are genuinely interested in learning about the history of Beijing.
One redeeming quality about our tour guide was that he did provide some insight for us while we were at the Forbidden City.
The tour of the Forbidden city was great., but make sure that you come back another day to see more of the city, it is to much to take in in just one day. Lunch was just OK, guide was very good.
I did two day tours in Beijing. Both were outstanding. On the first day to the Great Wall of China I was the only traveller and I had a driver and fantastic guide to myself. This gave my maximum flexibility at each attraction. Second day trip was to Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Place - this day with just one other traveller - another great guide.
This was a very professional and well-led tour. The very small size of our group made it feel like we were being given a private tour. And our guide called our hotel room the night before to introduce herself and confirm pickup times. Nice touch especially when you're on the go. Obviously, these sites are much too large to experience in just a few hours, but we got the highlights. Being led through the Forbidden City is a good thing as it is massive. We also took the Historic Beijing II tour and are glad we did not try to combine everything into one tour. The shopping did not feel forced and we did spend. If you want a tour, however, that just hits historic sites without the shopping experience, you should look around. But this group does a very nicely balanced tour, and the whole experience is very pleasing. We recommend this tour. After taking this one, we feel confident enough to return by ourselves the next time.
We did not spend enough time in the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. It felt rushed.
