We watched the Last Emperor on DVD the night before we left for China. It helped us all to appreciate the Forbidden City, especially the children who had little knowledge of Chinese history before this trip. As we walked through we could imagine Puyi living there. It's a must see.

Yes it's crowded, but that is China- get use to it! Go back in time and enjoy looking around at a leisurely pace. Get a guide if you can afford it, my wife is a Beijing'er so I was very lucky to have her explain everything. It's huge and just like in the movie Last Emperor, make sure you take... More

This tour is a must for beijing. Once you enter, you must complete the tour as there is no turning back. Some of the halls are massive. In contrast the rooms for the masters were quite small. That a city after so many hundreds of years still exists is remarkable. There has een fires there, but those buildings have been... More

Trip to forbidden city was very entertaining as it is difficult to believe that chairman Mao would want to keep all this historical past of Chinas old emperors with all their connections to lots of concubines and the way they lived in the past.Our guide was very knowledgable and made it a good experience

This is a sprawling complex and is very busy with Chinese visitors who flock to this impressive palace. However despite the crowds it's a great place to visit and you get a real feel of how the emperors used to live.

I was expecting little bit more out of my visit here. It contained a ton of walking. At some points the crowds of people were so ridiculous of not letting other people through to take a quick photo of the Emperors room etc. the garden was magnificent and was probably the only part out of the whole 'city' I enjoyed.... More

It's an imperial wonder and a great experience, just be prepared for a LOT of people. Still, a "must-see". We went with a private guide and that made all the different - he pointed out so many things, architectural and historical, that we would otherwise have missed.

Of course, everyone must visit the Forbidden City while in Beijing. Our guide navigated our small group to the most important areas. It was not quite as overwhelming. After visiting, see the movie "The Last Emperor." It was made there.

I'd recommend watching the Last Emperor prior to visiting, the movie isn't historically accurate but does provide some context that will make your visit more interesting.