The Palace Museum occupies the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties at the core of Beijing. Built between 1406 and 1420, it spreads over about 180 acres and contains 980 buildings, so the palace architecture is as much the attraction as anything shown within it. Its Chinese name is 故宫博物院 (Gùgōng Bówùyuàn).
The collection numbers more than 1.8 million works of art, most of them from the imperial holdings of the Ming and Qing courts. It grew through the 20th century with new acquisitions, transfers from other museums and archaeological finds, which makes the museum suited to visitors interested in Chinese art as well as imperial history.
The palace opened to the public in 1925, the year after Puyi, the last Emperor of China, was evicted. Today it is a national museum and one of the most visited museums in the world, averaging around 15 million visitors a year since 2012.
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Wikipedia