The Palace Museum, a large-scale, comprehensive museum of traditional Chinese art, was established in 1925 on the site of the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of China’s Ming and Qing dynasties, and is centered on the dynastic collections. In 1961, the State Council designated the Forbidden City as one of the nation’s key sites for cultural heritage protection, and in 1987 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 2007 the Palace Museum became a national 5A-level tourist attraction, and in 2008 it was listed by the National Cultural Heritage Administration as one of the first group of China’s first-class museums.

The Forbidden City is China’s only surviving example of the development of the palatial city over time. Covering c.1.06 million square meters, it is a well-preserved historical palace complex, with foundations that are the largest in the world: the heritage structures cover an area of about 230,000 square meters. The Palace Museum houses a vast collection of over 1.9 million pieces or sets of artefacts, which can be divided into 25 categories including paintings, ceramics, religious items, books, documents, and architectural components etc., and among which about90% are recognized as most valuable artefacts.

On Oct. 10, 1925, the Palace Museum was established based on the Forbidden City, once the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties, and opened to the public for the first time, along with its priceless imperial art collections. Today, the museum ranks among the most visited museums in the world. In 2009, the attendance surpassed 10 million for the first time, with the figure exceeding 17.6 million in 2024.