Originally Posted by
Maux
Half a day for the forbidden city si enough, so you can spend one day for the GW.
For the forbidden city it's NECESSARY to book the visit through a website by paypal. I don't remember the website but you can easily find it. If you don't book in advance, be sure to be at the ticket office of the FC very early. In august, at 8.30am it was already closed, but i booked the last ticket of the day during my last day in Beijing.
For the GW i went to Mutyanyu and i highly recommend it to you. Few people and there is also a part of the wall not restored, so you can see both. If you have a day you can go there by bus from Donzgzhimen, if i remember well
I personally haven't been to the FC for many years, but I'm surprised by this advice. Having sent many visitors to the FC over the last few years, never having booked tickets in advance, none have failed to get in. None arrived at 08:30 in the morning. It's possible that things have changed, but I would honestly be surprised. There certainly are reports of days when visitors have been turned away. And whilst the FC received a very impressive 16 million visitors a day, that equates to about 45k/ day on average, which is well below the 80k cap. All I can surmise is that perhaps you visited on a holiday day which was extraordinarily busy?
tb