An inside view of Shoukang Gong Photos: Courtesy of the Palace Museum

Sculptures on display at Cining Gong

A view of the Forbidden City's Wu Men (Meridian Gate)

The Palace Museum fever triggered by the exhibition of the rarely-seen national treasure Along the River During the Qingming Festival reached an epic high on Sunday, the last day this treasured scroll painting would be on display.

With The Palace Museum scheduled to change a majority of exhibits on display as part of its The Precious Collection of the Stone Moat exhibition, thousands of visitors stood in line until 4 am to get a glimpse of this work last put on display here a decade ago.

Following right on the heels of this painting, it looks like another major exhibit at the museum is about to kick off another wave of visitors rushing to the Forbidden City.

On Saturday, the museum's 90th anniversary, four previously closed off  sections within the Forbidden City were opened to the public. According to museum officials, this brings the total area of the emperor's previous residence open to the public up to 65 percent from 52 percent. 

Coming hand in hand with this change, eight new exhibitions are being held in these four new areas.  

These newly opened areas are quite the attention-getters themselves. For instance, the Cining Gong (Palace of Compassion and Tranquility) and Shoukang Gong (Palace of Longevity and Health) in the western section of the museum were the living areas of the female members of the royal family. Over the years, various mystery and even ghost stories have been spread about these previously closed off areas, inspiring numerous novels and dramas.

What's new



Baoyun Lou: History of the Palace Museum  

Baoyun Lou (Hall of Embodied Treasures) is located within the Xihua Gate on the east side of Wuying Hall. During China's Beiyang Government period (1912-28), it was built to store cultural relics. It's combination of Chinese and Western architecture styles makes it a unique part of the Forbidden City.

The Palace Museum started renovating in 2013 and finished in May of this year. This former storage room has been turned into an attractive exhibition hall on the second floor of the main building that reveals the complicated history of the Palace Museum through documents, images and relics.

Cining Gong: The Sculptures Gallery

The Palace Museum has long possessed a large collection of sculptures of high artistic and historical value, but it had previously lacked a venue to collectively display them. The newly renovated and opened Cining Gong will be used as a permanent venue to exhibit sculptures, mainly focusing on Buddhas, pottery figurines and mausoleum carvings.

Divided into five themes, over 400 sculptures ranging in time from the Qin (221BC-206BC) to the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties are on display.

Shoukang Gong : Life of the Empress Dowager Chongqing, Mother of the Qianlong Emperor

This place may be especially familiar to visitors due to its depiction in various period dramas such as The Legend of Zhenhuan. It was the room of the Empress Dowager Chongqing (1693-1777), who as the title of the exhibition here indicates was the mother of the Qianlong Emperor. The longest-living empress in Chinese history, she lived in this hall for 42 years.

After the founding of the Palace Museum, this area was turned into storage room for cultural relics. Now the front and back hall on the central axis of the Forbidden City will be decorated as it was during the Qianlong period (1735-96) of the Qing Dynasty.

Tower Gallery and the east and west wings of Wu Men (The Meridian Gate): Universal Jubilation: Qing Dynasty Imperial Birthday Celebrations

This 2,800-square-meter space is the museum's largest modern exhibition area. The large space provides enough room to display all types of relics from large to small.

Over 500 cultural relics including paintings, jade pieces, porcelain, lacquerware, enamels and furniture, as well as opera performances can be found here until January 10.

Additional exhibitions include Conservation and Repair Techniques of the Palace Museum and Gallery of Traditional Chinese Architecture .

Squeezing in



The Palace Museum implemented a real-name registration system online to book tickets in June and now limits visitors to 80,000 a day to improve the visiting environment and protect relics.

According to the information provided by the Palace Museum, the just finished National Day holidays saw a rise in the number of visitors booking tickets online: 49,703 online booking were recorded on October 2, almost reaching the 50,000 online booking limit.

Rumors are circulating that the Palace Museum may cancel ticket sales at the ticket office and require all tickets to be booked online. This has sparked debate as many worry senior citizens will be less likely to know how to book tickets online.