Beijing Forbidden City Small Group Tour with Tickets

10 out of 10. The Forbidden City is beautiful on its own, but if you want to truly understand its soul, do yourself a favor and ask for Neo as your guide!

You have to be prepared to walk. Everything is very fast. Ping, the guide cares a lot about the group and explains everything she can.

The visit was great. Excellent guide and very productive tour.

Susan was absolutely fantastic- great info and route keeping us to the side of the big groups of tours. Would definitely recommend.

This was a great experience. The tour company got in touch on WhatsApp as soon as week booked (several weeks in advance) and was happy to answer any questions leading up to the tour. There was also a message the day before with all the details we needed about meeting point etc. The tour itself was great - it is a huge site, so to cover everything would have taken at least a full day. Instead, the guide gave us lots of interesting information, taking us through the central path, without overloading us and keeping to time. He was very happy to answer any questions and also allowed time for taking pictures etc, even helping us taking photos. Throughout the tour he gave pointers and suggestions for other parts of the site to explore individually after, if we choose to.

We booked this tour because regular tickets for the Forbidden City were no longer available. Originally, we hadn’t planned to join a guided tour at all, but in the end, we were pleasantly surprised. We were initially told to meet at 8:00 AM, but shortly beforehand we were informed that the meeting time had been moved to 8:20 AM. The tour eventually started around 8:30 AM. We set off from a subway station and walked for about 15 minutes. The tour guide then purchased the tickets for us on site, and the actual guided tour began shortly after 9:00 AM. There were 18 people in our group, and the tour was conducted in English. Overall, it was very interesting. We were given small headphones, and the guide shared a lot of information along the way. It was definitely helpful, especially if you don’t want to walk through the Forbidden City without any context. Of course, it’s also possible to explore the site on your own, but there isn’t much information displayed on site. So unless you prepare very well in advance, a guided tour can be quite useful. The tour lasted until around 12:30 PM. It was a very warm day, and our feet were quite sore by the end, so for our taste it could have been a bit shorter. Some parts didn’t interest us as much, while we would have preferred to hear more about other topics—but that’s probably just a matter of personal preference. Overall, if you are interested in Chinese history, a guided tour is definitely a great choice.

Nice tour with a great guide. I learned a lot about Chinese history, and recommend this tour to others.

I appreciated the small group size of just 5 people (on Nov 21, 2025); it made navigating the Forbidden City easier. Our guide was great, he spoke naturally and clearly, showing us the complex in a respectful, informative, and agreeable manner. The pacing was also good, and we never felt rushed. Great tour, thanks!

Coco was a very great guide! She knew a lot about the forbidden city and brought the historical stories to life in her stories. It was all very well organized and we got a good overview of the buildings and the history associated with this place. You should put on good, comfortable shoes, especially if you want to explore the forbidden city for yourself after the tour.

Linda was very helpful, energetic and very kind. I can recommend this tour and Linda!!!! Thank you, I enjoyed it very much!!!!