The 1992 Palace Museum paranormal event and related events

The Forbidden City, as a popular tourist destination, receives tens of thousands of visitors from home and abroad every day. However, not everyone knows that this ancient palace complex is also rumored to be a place where mysterious and eerie events frequently occur. Over the years, some people claim to have seen Qing Dynasty eunuchs, headless palace maids, and other strange and inexplicable phenomena.

**The 1992 Palace Maid Ghost Incident**

One day in 1992, the entire Forbidden City was shrouded in a thunderstorm. Tourists were hastily looking for places to take shelter from the rain. Suddenly, with a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder, a ghostly event unfolded. Next to the red walls of the Forbidden City, people spotted palace maids walking! The tourists quickly used their devices to capture this scene. However, these photos or videos are no longer available online today.

The thief who stole from the Forbidden City said that while listening to the tour guide's explanation, he inexplicably felt the urge to steal cultural relics. It's unclear whether he was bewitched or not.

*PS: There is a scientific explanation for the palace maid phenomenon. Scientists say that the red palace walls contain magnetite (Fe₃O₄), and lightning might conduct electrical energy down. If a palace maid happened to pass by at that moment, the palace wall would function like a videotape. If lightning struck again in the future, it might project the recorded image of the palace maid, similar to playing a video. However, a recent architect pointed out that the Forbidden City's walls have been repainted many times. Even if there is magnetite, it would have been covered and would no longer work. So, this incident remains a mystery. Moreover, unlike ordinary people's siheyuan (courtyard houses), the Forbidden City has seen many people dying unjustly and violently. Therefore, it's not surprising that there are ghost stories.*

**Why Are There Ghostly Shadows in the Forbidden City?**

It is said that shortly after the liberation, the night patrol guards of the Forbidden City Museum often saw a strange animal. It looked like a rat but was much larger, and it looked like a pig but ran incredibly fast. People claimed that these were the palace-guarding beasts kept by the royal family in the eastern and western palaces. Later, many people tried to catch one or two, but after nearly sixty years, more and more people have seen them, yet no one has actually managed to capture one! It's truly amazing.

A man who used to be a gatekeeper at the Forbidden City said that every night he could hear music being played, and sometimes he could see palace maids and eunuchs walking in line. The children of this man were all in poor health, and the elders said it was because he was exposed to too much yin energy, which affected the next generation! Not only that, but have you noticed that many courtyards in the Forbidden City are closed off and not open to the public? In fact, every mansion has experienced phenomena that science cannot explain. Before the liberation, when these places were not closed, many people died there! They either disappeared without reason or met their end, but the causes were always mysterious and untraceable. However, there was one common point: if the body could still be found after death, the corpse would be missing its facial skin.

Even more eerie is a well. During the day, when you look down into it, you see only stones and weeds at the bottom. But after midnight, as long as there is a moon in the sky, if you look down, you will not see stones or weeds, but water. And the reflection on the water is not your face.

Five o'clock is the time when the Forbidden City closes and clears out visitors. It is said that this is the moment when the yin energy in the Forbidden City is the strongest. Many visitors have felt that even on a hot summer day, the Forbidden City at 5 p.m. gives off a kind of chill...

**Was the Designer's Visit to the Forbidden City Smooth?**

On July 19, 1999, with only a little over two months left before the 50th anniversary of the founding of our country, the Forbidden City was to undergo a minor renovation. Therefore, the Forbidden City Museum began to limit the number of people entering, and the number of people who could enter the Forbidden City at that time was very small.

By 5 p.m., in the 720,000-square-meter majestic palace complex, there were even fewer people inside. A friend of mine, who was a designer in the renovation project, called me that day, saying that he had left a drawing at home and couldn't leave because he was busy. He asked me to bring it to him. As friends, it was no problem to do such a small favor (mainly because I had never been to the Forbidden City before and was eager to see it). So, I took the drawing and headed to the Forbidden City.

When I arrived at the Forbidden City, it was already after 7 p.m. I got out of the car at the East Hua Gate and entered the temporary renovation department with the drawing. The small rooms in the Forbidden City all looked alike, and I didn't know their names. I just saw a temporarily designed sign on the door. After entering the room, I handed the drawing to my friend. He said he would be done in a while and that I could wander around by myself first. He gave me his work badge, saying that with it, no one would ask who I was, which would be convenient, but I shouldn't go too far. I was quite happy and thought to myself, this is great, no one to supervise me, I should take the opportunity to explore.

I started to walk around according to my knowledge of the Forbidden City's layout. After about 20 minutes, I arrived near the Taihe Gate Square. It was really huge. As I was admiring the view at the entrance of Taihe Gate, I suddenly saw a large crowd of about 50 people standing at the entrance of Taihe Hall. Since I was standing far away from Taihe Hall, I could only see that they were all wearing dark clothes and couldn't tell what they were doing. At first, I thought they were the construction team for the renovation project. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how they were repairing it, so I walked over. Just as I was about to get close, all those people quickly disappeared into the hall, faster than I could follow. Moreover, it was getting dark, and they didn't turn on any lights (at that time, I thought to myself that the Forbidden City's hall must not have electricity to maintain its original appearance).

When I walked up the stone steps outside the hall, I couldn't see a single person, and there was complete silence. When I entered the hall, it was pitch black, with no one inside. The dark hall seemed so eerie and even terrifying. Who could have imagined what scenes had taken place here a hundred years ago! I was puzzled about where those people had gone. They couldn't have left so quickly! I went out of the hall and walked around to the back, but still, there was not a single person in sight. Apart from seeing another square, there was nothing. At that time, I didn't think much of it. As a first-time visitor to the Forbidden City, I might not know some other routes. So, I walked back, thinking that my friend would be done soon. After I walked down the stone steps and continued for about 2 minutes, I turned my head and saw those 50 or so people again, all wearing dark long robes.

**Can't Get Out of the Forbidden City After It Closes?**

The rumors about the Forbidden City are probably well-known to people in Beijing. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Forbidden City was opened to the public. One person wanted to steal treasures from the Forbidden City, so he hid inside and didn't come out when it closed in the afternoon, planning to steal at night. However, the next day, he was found dead on the steps.

It is said that after dark, you should not stay inside the Forbidden City because you will never be able to find your way out.

**Did the Visitor Walk Through the Wall?**



A netizen's university classmate is from Beijing, and his high school classmate's mother is a staff member of the Forbidden City Museum. It is said that one day after the museum closed, an elderly person was on patrol. While walking, he noticed a middle-aged woman with a coiled hairstyle, wearing a cheongsam (qipao), in a hutong ahead. He was puzzled and thought to ask her what she was doing there. The woman smiled at him and then turned around and walked into the wall behind her.



Please note, it was into the wall, not through a door. The old man was so scared that he turned around and ran to find his work partner. After finding him and telling him the story, the old man passed away a few days later.



Perhaps it was his destined time to go, with low yang energy, allowing him to see such things.



**How Was the Sentry Carried Out from the Hall of Longevity and Cultivation?**



It was a summer day when several firefighters had finished a fire drill in the Hall of Longevity and Cultivation (Chuxiu Palace) and decided to sleep there. It was hot, so they just laid down on mats inside the hall. In the early morning around 2 a.m., one of the soldiers was awakened by the cool night breeze. He groggily opened his eyes and saw that he was sleeping in the corridor outside the hall. He had clearly been sleeping inside, which frightened him. However, being a soldier, he gathered his courage, picked up his mat, and went back inside to sleep. When he woke up in the morning, he found himself outside again. He told the other soldiers, "Stop messing with me. Aren't you tired enough from the training? Do you still have the energy to play tricks?" The other soldiers replied, "We didn't carry you out. We woke up and saw you sleeping outside. Maybe you were sleepwalking, but you never had this problem in the army. It's strange." They decided to figure out what was happening. After each patrol in the Hall of Longevity and Cultivation, they all rested there, but the same soldier kept being carried outside in the middle of the night. Everyone became scared and dared not sleep in the hall anymore. But why didn't the other soldiers get carried out? I think it might be because the soldier who was carried out had weak yang energy. After the patrol and training, he was exhausted, and that was when he was most vulnerable, making him an easy target for whatever was haunting the place.



**Why Did Crying Erupt?**

A friend told me that in the early 1980s, a film crew from the Beijing Film Studio was shooting a night scene in the Forbidden City. It was past midnight, and the actors were scared and wanted to leave, but the director wouldn't allow it. They had no choice but to continue filming. Suddenly, a row of figures dressed in palace maid costumes appeared on the wall, and the sound of women crying could be heard. The entire crew fled in panic and didn't return until the next morning to collect their belongings.

**Security experience**

In the early 1980s, two security guards were working the night shift together. One of them went to the restroom, which was a fair distance from where they were sleeping. As soon as he closed the door, he heard a knock. He asked, “Who’s there?” A deep voice replied, “Open the door.” He opened the door, but there was no one there. He thought he’d continue using the restroom, but then he heard another knock. The same deep voice said, “Open the door.” He was terrified and ran back to where they were sleeping, thinking that maybe the other guard was playing a joke on him. When he got back, he saw that the other guard was still sleeping, his position unchanged. Sure enough, when he asked about it the next day, the other guard had no idea what he was talking about. After that, he never dared to go out alone at night again!

Do you believe the firsthand accounts of the palace maid incidents?

I think it was in 1993, around November, when I was in junior high school. One day, I heard students from another class talking about how the Forbidden City was haunted at night. They spoke with such conviction and seemed to have solid evidence. I decided to go and see for myself over the weekend.

On Saturday, after finishing my homework, I went to my uncle’s house around 8 p.m. My cousin mentioned that he was on duty at the Forbidden City that night, and I was thrilled because that meant I could stay there longer.

I entered the Forbidden City and found my uncle. I chatted with him casually, asking if it was true that the place was haunted. He paused for a moment, then said, “There are no ghosts. They’re just making it up.” After that, he didn’t say anything more.

At 9:30 p.m., he urged me to go home. But since my goal was to see if there really were ghosts, I refused to leave. Around 11 p.m., I said I needed to use the restroom and left his office. Strangely, the weather was fine when I went out, but as soon as I did, a strong wind started blowing.

The Forbidden City was very dark at night, with hardly any streetlights. To be honest, I was really scared. I jogged all the way to the central hall. As I approached the entrance to the hall, I saw a woman in Qing Dynasty clothing flicker and disappear in the dim light from the doorway.

I was stunned for a full minute. After regaining my composure, I realized that the woman looked like a palace maid. I quickly retraced my steps back to my uncle’s office. As soon as I entered, I said, “I really saw a ghost! It was near the hall. The ghost in the palace maid’s clothes just vanished.” After hearing my story, my uncle’s mouth twitched a couple of times. He asked me if I had gone into the hall. I said no. He let out a sigh of relief and told me that the area was off-limits at night. I was very scared, but I was also curious, so I begged my uncle to go with me to check it out. In the end, he reluctantly agreed.

When we reached the entrance to the hall, I froze... I saw not just one palace maid, but several of them walking toward the hall. I finally understood why my uncle had said it was off-limits at night... Heh, it turns out that things only start to get “abnormal” after dark. Who’s brave enough to explore the Forbidden City at night?

Five o’clock is when the Forbidden City closes to visitors. That’s because after 5 p.m., the visitors from the human world have to leave, and those who take the stage next are...

During the Yongle era, two major palace cases led to the execution of 3,000 palace maids and concubines. The emperor himself attended the execution site to watch these women being tortured to death. Are they still here today?

In the Jiajing era, the emperor, who was superstitious about Taoism, used young girls to make elixirs. Sixteen palace maids, unable to bear the humiliation, tried to strangle the emperor. In their panic, they tied the rope in a slipknot, and their plan failed. The sixteen maids, along with two implicated concubines, were all executed. The emperor, terrified, never dared to live there again because he felt that “the wrongful deaths of the past would haunt him.” Twenty years after moving out of the palace, he nervously returned to the Forbidden City, only to die on the same night. In the end, he couldn’t escape the vengeance of the wronged spirits. Did they really become vengeful ghosts? Are they still here?

In the final years of the Chongzhen era, Li Zicheng’s rebel forces entered Beijing. The desperate emperor killed his wife and daughters with his own sword in a “sacrifice to the nation.” Amidst the screams, limbs flew everywhere, and the hall was covered in blood. The scene added to the desolation of the dying dynasty. Are they still here? The emperor, who had no face to meet his ancestors, also stripped off his dragon robe, let his hair down, and hanged himself from a twisted tree on Jingshan Hill. Since then, on cloudy days, the hill has been haunted, with people hearing shouts of “The ministers have ruined the country!” It is said to be the voice of the deceased Chongzhen. Is he still here?

During the Guangxu era, the emperor, angered by Zhenfei’s strong advice, cruelly pushed her into a well and drowned her. Is she still here?