Hong Kong Palace Museum — Attraction in Hong Kong

The Palace Museum has finally opened in the West Kowloon Cultural District. This is a partner to the Palace Museum in Beijing, housing over 900 precise treasures of Chinese heritage and culture from the Forbidden City.

As for what you will see, the architecture of the museum is delightful. It is a spacious with an imposing exterior appearance, matched by the interior layout and design experienced within. There are 6 levels to the museum. Exhibition galleries are spread throughout GF - 4F. You will view numerous historic treasures from The Palace which are now permanently on display here in HK.

Galleries 1 and 2 are special, walking visitors through (Gallery 1) the architectural history of the Forbidden City and (Gallery 2) the Daily Life through the eyes and lives of the Emperors and Empresses of the Forbidden City through the centuries. The treasures are displayed beautifully and include just enough English and Chinese information to understand what you are viewing. All is excellently curated in a modern, elegant yet approachable way, so that everyone can enjoy what they are seeing, be you a history buff, novice museum goer or even family with children.

Galleries 3-5 showcase ceramics (Gallery 3), portraits of the Emperors and Empresses (Gallery 4), design and pottery (Gallery 5), making use of more of the Palace Treasures in more focused displays. Gallery 6 has a Hong Kong feel and presence, highlighting the history of local museums' efforts and endeavours to preserve and highlight Chinese art and antiquity here in Hong Kong. Gallery 7 offers more interpretive, abstract and contemporary art installations.

Gallery 8 seems to be allocated to special exhibitions. I was able to view the third rotation of ancient paintings and calligraphy masterpieces from the Grand Palace, some works dating back 1800 years. These were remarkable works and such a delight to view while available. In the near future, they will begin hosting a new special exhibition featuring over 100 masterpieces from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, one of the most prestigious private art collections in the world. This exhibition will being in Nov 2022 and run until mid Feb 2023.

Gallery 9 is where you will find the inaugural special exhibition for the Hong Kong Palace Museum, called Grand Gallop, the art and culture of Horses. This exhibition is remarkable for Hong Kong, featuring real strengths of the Palace Collection centred around theme of horses and the role they have played throughout Chinese dynastic history as well as other places around the world. There are treasures on display from both the Palace Museum as well as The Louvre (Paris), an exquisite teaming of precise works and such rare viewing opportunity under one roof. In all honesty, this exhibition is up there with the very best we recall seeing in Hong Kong over the past 15 years at any of our museums. It is that special and something we greatly look forward to experiencing again before the exhibition concludes. If one is here and able to visit the Palace Museum right now, the Grand Gallop exhibition alone is worth making the time and effort to do so.

Note: Museum entry is on the elevated 1F level, take the escalator up from the ground floor. Staff will help point you in the right direction if unsure. There are a handful of lockers available at a detached ticketing office in front of the main entrance. These require payment to use. There are outdoor viewing decks on level 2 and 4 providing excellent views of Victoria Harbour and sea.

In the end, I was very impressed with my first visit to the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Like the M+ which just opened last year in West Kowloon and the reopening of HKMOA a couple years back, they have have absolutely hit home runs recently, providing the city with several world class museums in the modern era, places that international visitors will want to give real consideration to visiting and places that local residents can potentially enjoy experiencing several...

This reviews my visit to the Hong Kong Palace Museum in chronological order, from getting to the museum to visiting each of the exhibition halls. I shall detail why I felt the museum was done poorly and that it felt like a bureaucratic project where the organizers were only interested in checking off boxes in a given list of requirements rather than building a proper exhibition.

The transportation to the museum is first and foremost downright terrible. The museum is cut off from the metro station and relies heavily on minibuses which are neither punctual, organized, nor clean. The alternative walking path contains 1. a walkway shouldering the highway covered in smog, 2. a bridge over the cross harbor tunnel with no escalator, and 3. another walkway along side construction sites.The trip to the museum itself was sufficiently unpleasant to turn visitors away.

Given the capacity of the museum, there is a grand total of maybe 15 lockers available at the ticket booth. Perhaps this is the intended capacity of the museum, otherwise this is just yet another box on the organizers' checklist. Indeed the compactness and overcrowdedness seems to suggest that the museum was not thought to host as many as they would.

The special exhibition halls were done like school projects: The positions of introductory panels are not well thought out. The presentation theme and message was not clear. The exhibited items feel scattered. The staff are simply disinterested in their jobs. Art pieces were scattered and disorganized to the point which they almost mutually interfere with each other.

The regular exhibitions are a bit more organized, but still there is little if not zero overall story to tell. Some calligraphies are not even encased in museum glass, and the lighting simply deflects off the ceiling making it very difficult to appreciate the pieces. The placement of the collections is questionable at best, and the message of most exhibitions...

Very impressive!!! If directions and information are clearer and better, I will give 5 stars. Must do things in Hong Kong. Very beautiful Palace Museum and Harborview. You will take many beautiful photos of the harbour view. Senior over 60 has discounts ticket, and the on-site self ticket machine is easy to use (not cash). It can be chosen from many different languages. The staff was very helpful to teach us because we there on Monday were not that crowded so we can to see things easier. The basic ticket was covered 7 galleries, we bought an extra special gallery 8, the extra gallery will change time by time. Perpare 2 or 3 hours to visit this place. We spent another hour sitting at the harbour side restaurant of our lunch. I saw many people pack their lunch family picnic there.

Unfortunately, information is not that clear. First, I was told to reserve the tickets online, and the website keeps linking me to online reservations 3 days later, but I will leave tomorrow morning. Second, be aware of the distance from the MTR station walk to the museum. It said from the MTR walk 9 minutes, we trying to find shuttle service cannot see a indication where is. It was a really long and exhausted walk. After a 20-minute slowly long walk, we want to get a cold drink and take a break in a restaurant. We can't find a directory board where the restaurant is. Sure, Google maps must be needed at that moment. Please need more soda machines in the park. That day was hot and humidity, 22 degrees Celsius without covering the walkway and not clear direction. We're wondering, it's the right way to go. I will suggest taking the taxi or Uber direct from the hotel to the museum. We stay at The Mira Hotel just right up on the MTR station. We did get a little sunburn...