The 2025 Palace Museum Calendar, containing images of more than 400 items from the museum's vast collection, was officially released in October to coincide with the centenary of the museum's founding. This year's edition — designed to reflect the Year of the Snake — has proven to be a big hit with cultural enthusiasts.

The 2025 Palace Museum Calendar on display at a gift store in the Forbidden City, Beijing, Nov. 21, 2024. [Photo by Yan Bin/China.org.cn]

As a signature product of the Palace Museum, the calendar has been published every year since 2009, and has earned the reputation as "China's most beautiful calendar." This year, the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has stepped up the technology of the calendar by applying augmented reality. By scanning QR codes inside its pages, readers can appreciate the various cultural relics up close on their phone. 

In honor of the Year of the Snake, the calendar also includes 31 pictures of snake-related cultural relics, such as bricks with a double-snake pattern from the Han dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220) and statues of the snake deities Fuxi and Nuwa from the Tang dynasty (618-907), allowing readers to learn about the snake artifacts in the collection of the Palace Museum.

A visitor browses the 2025 Palace Museum Calendar at a gift store in the Forbidden City, Beijing, Nov. 21, 2024. [Photo by Yan Bin/China.org.cn]

The calendar underwent a redesign in 2022, with the covers forming a series of 12 colors for the different zodiac years. Around 400 cultural relics and nearly 600 pictures of artifacts are selected for each year's calendar, presenting the beauty of the Palace Museum's collection. 

In addition, 52 unique handmade seals symbolizing the precious cultural relics and profound cultural heritage of the museum are scattered across eight stamping points around the Palace Museum for calendar buyers to find and use. The activity provides an interactive and fun experience for visitors to the Forbidden City.

Stamp designs on display at one of the stamping points in the Forbidden City, Beijing, Nov. 21, 2024. [Photo by Yan Bin/China.org.cn]

"I'm trying to collect all the seals from the various stamping points in the Forbidden City. The exquisite seals really surprised me and my friend," said Yang Qingying, a college student from Henan province. "We learned about the ancient architecture and the classic collection of the Forbidden City during our tour." Yang added that she thought the activity was part of the charm of buying the calendar.

"We're holding the stamp collecting activity for calendar buyers until February next year; the line for purchasing them has been getting longer every week since the release," explained a shop assistant at the Palace Museum's gift store. Most of those buying the calendars did so as a souvenir when they visit the Forbidden City, the assistant noted.

Through official online purchasing channels, sales of the calendar have already reached more than 20,000 on JD.com, China's giant e-commerce platform, and 124,000 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Purchases are expected to hit a record high next month, according to a staff member of the Palace Museum's flagship store on Douyin.