Palace of Gathering Excellence 储秀宫

It may come as a surprise to many people that the Forbidden City is not just one single palace. The grounds are so vast that generations of emperors built their own palaces. Some would reuse existing palaces, others will want one of their own. This resulted in a large cluster of palaces on both sides of the Forbidden City. Maybe it really is a dull life here since the emperors don’t like to live in previous palaces. Most of these palaces are off limits to visitors.

The Palace of Gathering Excellence is one of these palaces. The palace is quite dark and uninviting with most of the structure left unrestored. The palace used to house the empress and the concubines. The most famous one of them all, is Empress Cixi, who also used to live in this place. I didn’t really like this place as it felt cramped, add to that the large number of tourists milling about. Although there doesn’t seem to be any tour group coming here. Maybe it isn’t significant enough to warrant a visit.

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