Hong Kong’s latest world-class cultural landmark, the Hong Kong Palace Museum, has officially opened after five years in the making.

Located on a 13,000-square-metre site at the western tip of the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Hong Kong Palace Museum comprises nine galleries and presents over 900 priceless treasures from the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Designed by acclaimed Hong Kong architect Rocco Yim, the Hong Kong Palace Museum combines traditional Chinese architecture with contemporary aesthetics. It connects the past to the present, and brings together art and culture lovers from around the world.

One major architectural highlight of the museum is the ‘vertical central axis’, inspired by the central axis of the Forbidden City. Three atriums, each faces a different direction, connect different floors vertically and guide visitors to move upward. The translucent, beige-gold ceilings of the atriums resemble bamboo or gauze curtains — a contemporary interpretation of the glazed roof tiles on top of the grand palaces inside the Forbidden City.

A large quantity of the precious objects on display originate from the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Three thematic exhibitions — ‘Entering the Forbidden City: Architecture, Collection, and Heritage’, ‘From Dawn to Dusk: Life in the Forbidden City’ and ‘Encountering the Majestic: Portraits of Qing Emperors and Empresses’ — invite you to catch a glimpse at the court life during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Two other exhibitions, ‘Clay to Treasure: Ceramics from the Palace Museum Collection’ and ‘The Quest for Originality: Contemporary Design and Traditional Craft in Dialogue’, display historial artefacts and handicrafts respectively and allow you to discover the beauty of Chinese handicrafts from different perspectives.

The opening exhibitions also feature two Hong Kong-themed galleries. ‘Private to Public: The History of Chinese Art Collecting in Hong Kong’ surveys over a century of Chinese art collecting in the city. ‘No Boundaries: Reinterpreting the Palace Museum Culture’ presents six local multi-media and inter-disciplinary artists’ new works that reinterpret the art and culture of the Forbidden City from a fresh perspective.

Visiting all galleries in the museum will definitely take you a whole day. If you want to take a break, simply head to the museum’s food and beverage outlets, which include popular joints like Cupping Room, the French eatery Crepes & Bakes, as well as Jin Ya Ju Noodle Bar.

You can also enjoy panoramic views of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour and further explore the city’s world of arts in neighbouring facilities such as M+, Xiqu Centre, Art Park, and Freespace.

To visit, you can register or purchase tickets on the website of the Hong Kong Palace Museum or the West Kowloon Cultural District, or you can use the West Kowloon Cultural District app or the online platform of ticketing partners. For details, please refer to the museum’s website.