Discover the Hong Kong Palace Museum

The Hong Kong Palace Museum presents one of its most ambitious exhibitions to date: Ancient Egypt Unveiled. This landmark show brings together 250 precious artefacts from seven major Egyptian museums and the Saqqara archaeological site, marking the largest collection of Egyptian treasures ever assembled in Hong Kong.

Visitors will encounter mummies, golden funerary masks, intricately carved scarabs, and jewellery that once adorned pharaohs. The exhibition spans nearly 4,000 years of Egyptian civilisation, from the Old Kingdom through to the Ptolemaic period.

Highlights include a reconstructed burial chamber complete with authentic artefacts, interactive digital displays explaining mummification rituals, and rare papyrus manuscripts featuring the Book of the Dead. Photography is permitted in designated areas.

The Body Transformed presents approximately 200 breathtaking jewellery pieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's renowned collection. This is the first major exhibition in Hong Kong dedicated to jewellery and human adornment across global cultures.

The exhibition traces the evolution of jewellery from second millennium BCE Mesopotamia through to twenty-first century haute couture. Visitors will see everything from ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seals to Victorian mourning jewellery, Chinese jade bangles to African gold ornaments.

Each piece tells a story of power, identity, belief, and beauty across different civilisations. Audio guides are included with admission and provide in-depth commentary on over 50 highlight pieces.

Heavenly Horses celebrates the artistic legacy of the horse in Chinese culture through an extraordinary collection of paintings, ceramics, and jades from the Palace Museum's vault. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac.

The display examines how the horse was perceived across different periods — as a symbol of military power in Han dynasty battle scenes, as a subject of scholarly refinement in Song dynasty paintings, and as a subject of cross-cultural exchange during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

Particularly notable is a series of European oil paintings commissioned by Qing dynasty emperors, which show horses rendered in a distinctly Western style while retaining Chinese aesthetic sensibilities. The exhibition runs through until late 2026.

From Dawn to Dusk offers an immersive journey into the daily life of Qing dynasty royalty, presenting over 300 treasures that trace the rhythm of an imperial day — from the first rituals of morning to the final moments of evening reflection.

The exhibition is organised in chronological sections: dawn rituals involving elaborate ceremonial robes and jade sceptres, midday audiences with officials from across the empire, afternoon leisure featuring courtly painting and music, and the twilight ceremonies that closed each day.

Key pieces include a complete imperial dragon robe (longyi) worn by the Qianlong Emperor, a collection of cloisonne enamelled clocks that regulated the palace schedule, and a set of ivory carvings depicting court entertainments. The display draws exclusively from the Palace Museum's own holdings.

The Ways in Patterns transforms the museum's traditional decorative arts collection into an immersive digital experience. Visitors walk through three large-scale installations that project thousands of patterns sourced from Palace Museum architecture, ceramics, silk textiles, and jade carvings.

The exhibition explores how Chinese imperial design principles — symmetry, repetition, symbolic motifs (dragons, phoenixes, clouds, bats) — were applied across different mediums and materials. Interactive stations allow visitors to create their own pattern combinations.

Designed by a team of digital artists in collaboration with the Palace Museum's curatorial department, the exhibition runs continuously with 15-minute cycles. It is suitable for all ages and is particularly recommended for families with children.

The Quest for Originality brings historical objects and contemporary designs into direct conversation, pairing Palace Museum treasures with new works by Hong Kong-based designers trained in traditional Chinese craft techniques.

The exhibition examines themes of material innovation — how jade carving techniques developed during the Qing dynasty influence contemporary jewellers, how Ming dynasty furniture joinery methods are applied in modern studio pieces, and how ceramic glazing recipes from the Song dynasty inspire current studio potters.

Each pairing is displayed side by side, with explanatory panels exploring the continuities and transformations in Chinese material culture. The exhibition also features a small retail space where visitors can purchase works by the featured contemporary designers.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum is located at 8 Museum Drive, West Kowloon Cultural District. The nearest MTR station is Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui line and West Rail line), with the museum accessible via a 10-minute walk through the Cultural District. The Austin MTR station is also nearby.

Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. Friday and Saturday: 10:00 am – 8:00 pm. The museum is closed on Tuesdays (except public holidays) and the first two days of the Lunar New Year.

Facilities include a museum shop, a specialty Chinese tea room, a contemporary café with Western options, lockers for large bags, wheelchairs available for loan, and nursing rooms. The museum is fully wheelchair accessible.

General admission to the Hong Kong Palace Museum includes access to all permanent galleries and most special exhibitions. Specific ticketed exhibitions (such as Ancient Egypt Unveiled) require an additional supplement and must be booked in advance.

Standard admission: Adults HK$260, Concessions HK$130 (students, seniors 65+). Children under 6 enter free. Hong Kong residents with valid ID receive a 50% discount on standard admission. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.

Membership starting at HK$400 per year provides unlimited access to all exhibitions, exclusive member events, a 10% discount in the museum shop and café, and reciprocal access to partner institutions including the British Museum and the Smithsonian.

By MTR: The closest stations are Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui line and West Rail line, exit A1) and Austin (West Rail line, exit A2). Allow 10–15 minutes from either station to the museum entrance via the covered Cultural District walkway.

By bus: Routes 203S, 215X, 281A, and numerous others stop at the West Kowloon Cultural District bus terminus adjacent to the museum. From Hong Kong Island, take the Cross-Harbour Tunnel bus routes.

By ferry: The Star Ferry from Central or Tsim Sha Tsui piers connects to the nearby Kowloon Ferry Pier, followed by a 5-minute walk through the district. Driving and parking is available at the West Kowloon Cultural District car park.

The collection housed at the Palace Museum in Beijing — and now partially displayed in Hong Kong — spans nearly 8,000 pieces of Chinese imperial art accumulated over nearly 1,000 years. The collection traces its origins to the Song dynasty imperial art academy and grew through successive dynasties.

Following the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the collection remained in the Forbidden City, which became a public museum in 1925. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1933–1945), the most precious items were evacuated south to protect them from bombardment.

Today the collection includes over 1.8 million objects, with around 900 on display at any time in Beijing and rotating selections touring to the Hong Kong Palace Museum and other partner institutions worldwide. The Hong Kong Palace Museum agreement allows for semi-permanent display of selections for up to five years.