During Spring Festival in 2024, the Palace Museum will be closed all day on New Year's Eve (February 9th). From the first day of the first lunar month (February 10th) to the eighth day of the first lunar month (February 17th), it will be open as usual. The earliest entry time is 8:30 AM, the latest entry time is 3:30 PM, and the museum will close at 4:30 PM.
The storage facility will open 15 minutes earlier
The "Visitor Service Center" is located on the west side of the Duanmen Square, providing ticket inquiries and storage services.
During the Spring Festival, the storage facility will open at 8:15 AM. After completing the storage procedures, visitors can retrieve their stored items from the Donghuamen and Shenwumen retrieval points after at least 1 hour of visitation in the open area.
It is worth noting that during the Spring Festival, the last ticket check time at the Meridian Gate is 3:30 PM. To ensure smooth entry, visitors should complete the storage procedures 15 minutes before the ticket check stops.
The Palace Museum reminds visitors to refer to the "Palace Museum Visitor Guide" and "Palace Museum Prohibited Items Catalog" on the Palace Museum's official website or WeChat mini-program in advance to reduce personal belongings, such as knives, flammable and explosive materials, selfie sticks, drones, and ancient costume props, which need to be stored before entering.
Guides will slow down their speech for elderly visitors
The Palace Museum Guide Service Center is located south of the Meridian Gate, providing multilingual automatic audio guides and manual guide services.
The automatic audio guides are available in Mandarin, Cantonese, Minnan dialect, Tibetan, Uyghur, as well as 35 foreign languages, including English, French, and Russian, to meet the needs of visitors from different countries and regions, various demands, and different age groups.
The Palace Museum introduces that manual guides can provide more personalized tour guide services, with guides adjusting their pace and speaking speed accordingly. For example, when serving elderly and child visitors, they will slow down their speech and pace, adjust the volume appropriately, and remind them to pay attention to safety while moving.
New Year Dragon-themed special drinks
During the Spring Festival, the Palace Museum's 40 cultural and creative spaces, 9 dining areas, and 2 Palace Museum bookstores will welcome visitors with new Dragon-themed cultural and creative products, specialty foods, and cultural books.
The corner tower coffee shop launches a new series of Dragon-themed special drinks, including the festive "Dragon Whisker Latte" and "Dragon's Eye Milk Tea," as well as Dragon-shaped macarons and biscuits. The coffee cups featuring the patterns from the "Qianlong Dynasty Kesi Cloud Blue Dragon Imperial Robe" will also be available as new collectible items.
Year of the Dragon Zodiac stamps debut
Currently, you can purchase the Year of the Dragon "Palace Museum Calendar" in the bookstores at the The Hall of Literary Glory and Imperial Garden Hall of Literary Elegance. The 2024 zodiac stamp, following the Year of the Rabbit, is the second zodiac stamp released by the Palace Museum. The stamps feature two cultural relics, the Jinou Yonggu Cup and Dragon Robe, along with nine other relics from the Palace Museum's collection.
As a result of the Palace Museum's "Zero Waste" project, a series of zero waste cultural and creative products are also displayed and sold in the Palace Museum stores.
Year of the dragon cultural knowledge classroom online
On the TikTok, the official account of the Palace Museum will release a series of 10 short educational videos themed as customs and dragon artifacts of the Qing Dynasty from February 2nd to 24th, recreating the "flavor of the year" in the palace. The videos on palace customs introduce Qing palace banquets, Suzhou Banquets, and lantern banquets, showcasing the cultural significance of food during the Qing Dynasty. The videos on dragon artifacts explain the Nine Dragon Wall in the The Palace of Tranquil Longevity, the Six-Dragon Screen in the Taiji Palace, the Jinou Yonggu Cup, the Jade Dragon from the Neolithic Age, the gold-painted carved dragon-patterned deer whistle, and the Qing jade cloud dragon jar, allowing viewers to appreciate the elegance of these treasures and hear the stories behind them.
In addition, the large-scale immersive family musical "Luduan" by the Palace Museum will be staged at the Beijing Overseas Chinese City Theater. Based on the auspicious beast "Luduan" from the Palace Museum, the musical tells a series of interesting and touching stories between the protagonist Little Luduan and his family members of cultural relics, exploring innovative ways of inheriting cultural relics. The residency version adds new members based on three cultural relics: the green transparent glass millstone, the Jade Mountain from the "Great Yu Controlling the Waters" painting, and various glazed large bottles.
【Reminders】
When visiting the Palace Museum, it's recommended to save the following numbers in advance for any needs:
1.Palace Museum Hotline: 400-950-1925
The 400 hotline provides information on visiting, services, and ticketing, as well as accepting inquiries, emergencies, complaints, and suggestions. Automated voice service is available 24 hours a day, and human customer service is available from 8 AM to 8 PM.
2.Palace Museum Broadcasting Room: 85007424
The Palace Museum Broadcasting Room is located at the southeast corner of the Qianqing Gate Square. If you get separated from your companions during the visit and need to find them, you can seek help at the broadcasting room, where staff will broadcast real-time announcements based on the information you provide, such as name and hometown. You can also call 85007424 to inform the staff of the information about the person you are looking for, and they will broadcast the information after verification.
3.120 Emergency Station in the Palace Museum: 85007120
The 120 emergency station is located on the east side of the Archery Pavilion, equipped with emergency medical equipment, medical supplies, and medicines to provide on-site medical rescue services.
【Visiting Tips】
Separate tickets are required for the Treasures Gallery and the Clock and Watch Gallery. The three major exhibitions at the Meridian Gate and the The Hall of Literary Glory all operate on a real-name reservation system.
Translator: ZHANG Bo
Reviewer: NIU Lihua
