Beijing's Palace Museum will be forbidden to visitors from August 22 to September 3, the museum's ticketing website shows and tourism industry sources confirmed Wednesday.
Now limited to 80,000 visitors per day, the website for the museum more popularly known as the Forbidden City shows that no tickets are for sale beginning August 22. Tourism industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Beijinger that the Forbidden City, the former home of China's Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors, is indeed off limits until after September 3.
The Tiananmen Rostrum, at the museum's south end, has been closed since early August. Tiananmen Square and the nearby Wangfujing shopping street, will both officially be closed August 22 and 23 for rehearsals for the upcoming September 3 military parade, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japan.
Checkpoints with armed guards are already greetings visitors to Wangfujing and some office buildings on Chang'an Avenue, which runs directly through Tiananmen Square.
This latest shutdown is part of a whole host of closures previously announced, and another group of business stoppages that may expand as we get closer to September 3