Forbidden City Designs: Planning Your Visit

Audio Tours

Interested visitors can enhance their experience of the exhibition by taking one of two available audio tours designed by Acoustiguide especially for The Field Museum. The audio tours are sold on-site at the Museum and use state-of-the-art equipment that allows visitors to access any part of the tour at the touch of a button.

The 35-minute adult tour provides expert insights from co-curators Dr. Chuimei Ho and Dr. Bennet Bronson, and tells the behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most unique objects in the exhibition. The thirty-minute family tour uses children’s voices, offering visitors of all ages a fun and engaging way to better understand life in the imperial court.

Both tours bring an additional level of meaning—and excitement—to the exhibition’s most spectacular offerings, such as the throne room of the emperor, a five-foot tall solid gold stupa erected as a monument by Qianlong to his mother, a carved jade boulder that extols the virtue of respect for the elderly, and a room furnished with authentic artifacts that recreates the chambers of one of the emperor’s wives.

Acoustiguide audio tours of Splendors of China’s Forbidden City are $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for members and children (eleven years old and younger).

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photos courtesy of Palace Museum, Beijing