Every day, the Palace Museum in Beijing attracts tens of thousands of visitors. It's almost become too popular. The Forbidden City has now unveiled plans to control the number of visitors, for protection purposes. But in Canada, fans of Chinese history can now see how China's emperors once lived at a new exhibition featuring hundreds of items from the Palace Museum.

Canada is home to more than a million Chinese. They account for 30 per cent of Vancouver's population and 12 per cent of Toronto's. Now, they and anyone interested in Chinese history, can get a flavor of imperial life and see for themselves some of the treasures usually kept inside Beijing's Palace Museum.

The Royal Ontario Museum is hosting 250 precious items from inside the Forbidden City and many of them have never been seen before in North America.

From the elaborate imperial throne that greets visitors, to the collection of Ming dynasty porcelain, the collection shines a spotlight across centuries of life inside the palace.

"You see the grandeur, you see the symbols the power, and privilege. And then the next section that we bring people into is the inner court of the Forbidden City, where the life of the children is, the life of Emperor's woman, the lives of the servant, all various lives and what they eat, what they wear, what the fashion is," said Dr. Chen Shen, curator of Royal Ontario Museum.

A yellow and red theme runs through the museum hall, mirroring the colors which dominate the Forbidden City's own interior. Several portraits from the Qing dynasty depict life within the City's walls, like this painting of Emperor Yongzheng in his study.

"We want to bring the intimacies of the Forbidden City. What's the most sacred and intimate space in the Forbidden City? That is the Emperor's personal quarters. Where the Emperor wrote poetry, to do paintings and appreciate antiquities and appreciate artwork down there," Dr. Chen Shen said.

While the selection here is varied, it's still just a tiny snapshot of the 1.8 million treasures in the Museum Palace's permanent collection. Still, for many Chinese expats and Sinophiles it's a welcome insight into China's rich imperial past.