The Forbidden City's Treasures at 100

In 2025, China's Palace Museum celebrated 100 years since it first opened the gates of Beijing's Forbidden City to the public in 1925, turning an emperor's private realm into a museum for the people.

Within the vermilion walls lies one of the world's greatest collections of Chinese art — paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, jade and imperial treasures spanning millennia.

The centenary brought special exhibitions and a renewed spotlight on a museum that is both a priceless art collection and, in itself, a vast architectural masterpiece.

Image: “Cat at the Palace Museum in Beijing 2013” — Bernhard Wintersperger, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.