Tickets available for online purchase from 14 June, free admission available to public on Wednesdays in the opening year

The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) is pleased to announce that it will open to the public on 2 July 2022 (Saturday).

The opening exhibitions of HKPM are jointly curated by HKPM and the Palace Museum. 914 pieces of priceless treasure from the Palace Museum – the biggest loan to another cultural institution outside the Mainland since its establishment in 1925 – will be put on display on rotation at the opening exhibitions of HKPM. Some of the pieces are being shown in Hong Kong for the first time. They will be exhibited alongside more than 100 exhibits on loan from local museums and cultural institutions. HKPM will also display 13 precious art objects loaned from the Louvre Museum in Paris, a testimony to cultural and knowledge exchange between China and other countries.

To celebrate its opening, the museum will open to the public free of charge every Wednesday in the first 12 months (special exhibitions and events excluded). HKPM will also set aside about 150,000 general admission tickets (or 10% of total number of tickets in the first year) to be sponsored by corporates and other organisations for distribution to underprivileged groups. Sponsorships have been secured for procuring about 100,000 tickets and the museum will strive to achieve the target.

Admission tickets for the first four weeks will be available for purchase from 14 June (Tuesday). Members of the public can purchase tickets through the HKPM website, the West Kowloon Cultural District website, the West Kowloon Cultural District app, or the online platforms of HKPM’s ticketing partners including Klook, China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited and Fliggy.

Opening hours and ticketing details for HKPM are as follows:

Opening Hours:

• Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays: 10:00am–6:00pm
• Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays: 10:00am–8:00pm
• Tuesdays (except for public holidays) and the first and second days of the Lunar New Year: Closed

Ticket Prices:

Ticketing Instructions:

• On-site ticket sales will not be available for the first three months after HKPM’s opening. Visitors need to purchase tickets in advance through the HKPM website, West Kowloon Cultural District website and West Kowloon Cultural District app by creating an account using their email address. 
• The online ticketing system will be refreshed every Tuesday morning. Tickets can be reserved up to four weeks in advance.
• Each person may only purchase a maximum of four tickets per transaction. 
• Thematic exhibitions in Gallery 1 to Gallery 7 are open to the public free of charge every Wednesday for a period of 12 months after the museum’s opening date. All visitors are required to register online for free admission. Visitors enjoying free admission who wish to enter Gallery 8 and Gallery 9 will need to purchase a Special Exhibition Ticket.

Remarks:

• Concession tickets are available to full-time students, children aged 7 to 11, senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities (and one accompanying carer) and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients. 
• Children aged six or below, members of HKPM Friends and HKPM Patrons can enter the museum free of charge. (All concession tickets and benefits are subject to specific terms and conditions).
• Visitors with reserved tickets are required to enter the museum within the first hour of their scheduled admission time. Latecomers will not be allowed entry.

HKPM also announces that the “HKPM Friends” membership programme will be launched in July 2022 to foster long term support for the museum. This offers various benefits to members, including free year-round admission to both general admission and special exhibitions, special shopping discounts and exclusive viewing hours. Membership is available in four categories: Single ($600), Dual ($1000), Youth ($300) and Family ($1,200 for 2 adults and 1 child/teen aged between 7 to17). Further details will be unveiled in July 2022.

Bernard Charnwut Chan, Chairman of the Hong Kong Palace Museum Board, said: “Thanks to the full support of the Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, the museum will open in July 2022 as scheduled. Opening in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, our team is proud to be able to deliver this perfect gift to Hong Kong people. HKPM combines a Hong Kong perspective with a global vision to showcase treasures from the Palace Museum and other world-class cultural organisations – echoing the National 14th Five-Year Plan which testifies to the HKPM’s vision to transform the city into an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.”

Betty Fung, Chief Executive Officer of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, said: “The opening of the HKPM marks another significant milestone in the development of the West Kowloon Cultural District, solidifying its status as an arts and cultural hub and a platform for international cultural exchange in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and beyond. Similar to other top museums around the world, the museum aspires to operate sustainably with a combination of income channels, while taking into consideration its mission and the needs of people from all walks of life. We have come up with a package of measures including free general admission on Wednesday and sponsored tickets for the underprivileged groups in the first 12 months after opening with a view to offering Hong Kong people a chance to visit HKPM and gain a deeper understanding of Chinese arts, history and culture.”

Dr Louis Ng, HKPM Museum Director, said: “We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the Palace Museum for their unwavering support, as the Palace Museum has loaned out the most invaluable treasures to HKPM. Coupled with the incredible work from our world-class curatorial team, HKPM will offer a brand-new experience to everyone. We look forward to welcoming visitors from all around the world and giving them the opportunity to experience firsthand the wonderful art treasures from the Palace Museum.”

HKPM contains a total of nine galleries, each hosting thematic exhibitions or special exhibitions. In the opening exhibitions, five of the nine galleries (Gallery 1 to 5) will host exhibitions that dive into a wide range of topics related to the Palace Museum, including its architecture, art collections (including paintings, calligraphies, ceramics and art objects), cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in the Ming and Qing dynasties, court life and culture, as well as the museum’s role in intangible cultural heritage transmission. Two other galleries (Gallery 6 and 7) will feature Chinese art collections from Hong Kong along with multimedia installations from Hong Kong artists inspired by palace culture. The remaining two galleries (Gallery 8 and 9) are devoted to large-scale special exhibitions, presenting the finest and rarest Chinese paintings and calligraphic works from the Palace Museum along with artworks that highlight the significance of the horse in both Chinese and world cultures.

Remarks

About the Hong Kong Palace Museum
The Hong Kong Palace Museum aspires to become a leading institution on the study and appreciation of Chinese art and culture while advancing dialogue between world civilisations. The Hong Kong Palace Museum is a collaborative project between the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Palace Museum, which is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust with a donation of HK$3.5 billion for its establishment, as well as some of the annual exhibitions and education programmes in 2023–2031.

Embracing new curatorial approaches, the museum combines a Hong Kong perspective with a global vision to present precious artefacts from the Palace Museum and other important cultural institutions around the world. Through research, exhibitions, and educational and professional exchange programmes, the museum aims to build international partnerships and position Hong Kong as a global hub for art and culture. At heart a resource that belongs to the local community, the museum strives to inspire community engagement, foster dialogue, and promote creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration.
https://www.hkpm.org.hk/

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on 40 hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances and cultural events, providing 23 hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.
http://www.westkowloon.hk/