Photos give rare glimpse of imperial China

When visitors to Beijing's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, marvel at the breathtaking ancient palace, they may easily start to imagine themselves inside a popular historical TV series.

But to know about the real lives of royal families that lived there, the museum is now displaying 300 photographs taken from late 19th to early 20th centuries.

The exhibition, Old Photos from the Palace Museum's Permanent Collection, takes visitors back in time to review the museum's final years as a place forbidden to commoners. The museum hadn't displayed the old photos after 1949. The oldest photo exhibited was taken in 1863.