Which sights in China need booking in advance, and how?

How booking works

Tickets are real-name: one ticket per ID, released at a fixed hour a set number of days ahead, and checked against the passport at the gate. The official channels are the sight's own website or, more often, its WeChat mini program, in Chinese and sometimes English; most take a passport as the ID type, a few insist on a mainland phone number. Trip.com and Klook book the same tickets under your passport for a fee and are the easy route when the mini program defeats you; for the mini programs you need WeChat with a card linked (see the paying guide). Museums close on Mondays unless it is a public holiday.

The list is shrinking. Beijing dropped compulsory reservations at most sights in June 2024, and in July 2026 the National Cultural Heritage Administration told museums with the capacity to drop their caps altogether. Where booking remains it is because the place is genuinely full, so the rules below are the ones to check on the official page before you go.

Beijing

• Forbidden City: closed Mondays, open 08:30 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:00. Tickets go on sale seven days ahead at 20:00 and the daily quota is gone within the hour in high season. Foreign visitors book on the museum's English site (intl.dpm.org.cn) with a passport, bring the original and enter by the staffed channel at the Meridian Gate.
• National Museum of China: free, seven days ahead at 17:00, three entry slots a day, one booking per account per week, refundable until 15:00 on the day. Closed Mondays.
• Tiananmen Square itself needs a free timed reservation, one to seven days ahead; arrive on the wrong day and you are turned away. Mao's mausoleum, mornings Tuesday to Sunday, books one to six days ahead on its WeChat account.
• The Great Wall: at Badaling book on the official platform with your passport or pay at the ticket office, which takes foreign cards; Mutianyu sells online and at the gate.
• The Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven need no reservation; the Summer Palace's online tickets want a mainland number, so buy at the gate with your passport.

Xi'an

• Terracotta Army: book on the museum's overseas platform, which has run in 24 languages since 2024, and enter with your passport. Tickets are released about a week ahead; holiday dates sell out.
• Shaanxi History Museum: free and the hardest ticket in the city. Released five days ahead at 17:00 on the museum's WeChat account and gone in minutes; closed Mondays. Its new Qin and Han branch admits walk-ins with ID.
• The City Wall needs no booking; buying online the evening before skips the queue.

Dunhuang, Tibet and Sichuan

• Mogao Caves: in the April to November season the A ticket (eight caves with a guide, two films, RMB 238) is capped at 6,000 a day and sells up to about 30 days ahead on mgk.org.cn or the caves' WeChat account; the B ticket (four caves, RMB 100, 12,000 a day) opens 15 days ahead. Foreigners book with a passport; the English tours run at set times.
• Potala Palace: every ticket is sold through the official mini program, none at the door, a few thousand a day, about a week ahead; closed Mondays again since September 2026. Before any of that you need the Tibet Travel Permit, issued only through a licensed agency that also supplies the guide, in five to seven working days.
• Jiuzhaigou: 41,000 visitors a day in the April to mid-November season, real-name tickets on the park's official mini program with a waitlist; the first week of October sells out completely.
• Chengdu's panda base books online up to 14 days ahead and splits holiday days into two sessions. Leshan, Huangshan, Zhangjiajie and Dujiangyan sell timed online tickets that are normally available the day before, except in holiday weeks.

Shanghai, Suzhou and Nanjing

• Shanghai Museum: walk in at both the East and the People's Square buildings since September 2025, except on public holidays, in school vacations and for the big special exhibitions, which book up to 14 days ahead.
• Suzhou Museum: the main building needs a timed reservation up to seven days ahead; the West building and the gardens do not.
• Nanjing Massacre Memorial: free, real-name, booked one to seven days ahead on its WeChat account only.

Three habits that save a trip

• Fix your dates, then set alarms for the release times; on a holiday week the Forbidden City and the Shaanxi History Museum are decided in the first minutes.
• Book every member of the party under their own passport, exactly as printed, and carry the passports, not copies.
• If the official channel fails, an agent booking made the same evening usually still gets in; a day later it often does not.

Official sources

The rules above change; these are the pages to check before you travel, and the ones this guide was checked against on 2026-10-25.

• The Palace Museum hours, closure days and the 20:00 release; English booking at intl.dpm.org.cn
• National Museum of China: visitor reservations slots, limits and refunds
• Beijing government: FAQ for foreign visitors how foreigners book the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, June 2025
• Beijing government: reservations dropped at most attractions June 2024
• Shaanxi History Museum hours and the 17:00 release
• Mogao Caves booking A and B tickets, daily caps
• Jiuzhaigou official site daily cap and real-time visitor numbers
• National Cultural Heritage Administration: summer notice to museums drop reservation caps where capacity allows, July 2026

Related guides

• Trains and 12306
  How do I book train tickets in China with a foreign passport? Updated October 2026
• When to go
  When is the best time to visit China? Updated October 2026
• Paying for things
  How do I pay for things in China without a Chinese bank account? Updated October 2026

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