Best Museums in China: Which to Visit and How to Book with a Passport

Most public museums in China are free to enter, and that has been national policy since 2008. Free does not mean walk in, though. The big ones — the National Museum in Beijing, the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an, the Nanjing Museum, the Hubei and Hunan provincial museums — still ask you to book a timed slot online under your real name, and at most of them you can do that with a passport. Some famous sites charge: the Palace Museum (the Forbidden City), the Terracotta Army, Sanxingdui and the Mogao Caves. And the closing day is not always Monday. Shanghai Museum East and the Hong Kong Palace Museum close on Tuesdays, while the Terracotta Army and Sanxingdui open on Mondays.

The short answer: free entry, booking and closing days

The 2008 national rule made public museums and memorial halls free. Museums built on historic buildings or archaeological sites were not all included, and special exhibitions run on a commercial basis can charge a separate fee. That is why the National Museum costs nothing but the Palace Museum and the Terracotta Army sell tickets. Inside a free museum, expect to pay for some special exhibitions.

Booking is where most visitors get stuck. Many museums brought in real-name timed booking and kept it. In July 2026 the National Cultural Heritage Administration told museums that can handle the crowds safely to drop booking, and told the ones that keep it to make it simpler, keep a staffed window and phone booking, and offer guides in more languages. That notice is guidance, not a switch that flipped overnight: the famous museums on this page still use booking. In Beijing, most museums already dropped it in 2024, and the Palace Museum and the National Museum were named as exceptions. Rule of thumb: check each museum's own page a week before you go.

Ticket release times are different everywhere, so "tickets open 7 days ahead at midnight" is not a rule you can rely on. A few examples:

• Palace Museum: 7 days ahead, from 20:00 Beijing time, and no same-day tickets.
• National Museum of China: up to 7 days ahead, new tickets at 17:00 each day.
• Shaanxi History Museum: 5 days ahead, at 17:00.
• Nanjing Museum: the next 7 days, released at 18:00.
• Hubei Provincial Museum: up to 5 days ahead, released at midnight.
• Hunan Museum: 5 days ahead, released at 20:00.
• Mogao Caves: up to 30 days ahead.

Closing days also vary. Monday is the most common one (the National Museum, Nanjing Museum, Hubei, Hunan, Suzhou and M+ all close on Mondays), but Shanghai Museum East closes on Tuesdays, the Hong Kong Palace Museum closes on Tuesdays, the Terracotta Army has no weekly closing day, and Sanxingdui is open on Mondays and closes only on Chinese New Year's Eve. When a Chinese public holiday falls on a Monday, most Monday-closed museums open as normal. The table below puts the main museums side by side.

How to read it: the museums that are free and need booking are the ones that sell out, because there is no price to slow demand. In our experience the hardest to get are the Palace Museum, the National Museum and the Shaanxi History Museum in summer and on Chinese holidays. Shanghai Museum East is the easy one, because individuals do not book at all.

Discounts are a separate question. Whether a foreign senior, child or student gets the Chinese concession price is up to each site, and many limit it to Chinese citizens. Plan to pay the full adult price at paid sites unless the museum's own page says your group qualifies.

The national museums: Beijing and Shanghai

National Museum of China (Beijing)

The National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆, Zhōngguó Guójiā Bówùguǎn) sits on the east side of Tiananmen Square. Its main permanent exhibition, Ancient China, runs from prehistoric pottery and oracle bones through bronzes, Tang figurines and imperial treasures. If you only see one museum in Beijing, see this one, and give it three hours.

Entry is free, but every visitor needs a real-name booking. You can book up to 7 days ahead on the museum's website, its official booking mini program, its WeChat mini program or its WeChat official account. (A WeChat official account is an organisation's verified channel inside WeChat; a mini program is a small app that runs inside WeChat or Alipay with no download.) There are three entry slots a day (9:00–11:00, 11:00–13:30 and 13:30–16:00, with the last slot running to 16:30 from June to October), new tickets come out at 17:00, and you can cancel until 15:00 on the day. One account can book once a week for up to five people, and you enter through the north entrance with the original ID you booked with. The booking rules ask for a valid ID document; foreign visitors use their passport through the museum's official booking notice and channels, so check that the form offers a passport option when you book.

The museum opens 9:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:00, stays open until 17:30 from 1 June to 31 October, and closes on Mondays except public holidays. Tiananmen Square has its own booking system, and visitors who already hold a National Museum or Palace Museum booking use that record to get in. Our Beijing travel guide shows how to fit the square, the museum and the palace into one day.

Palace Museum (the Forbidden City)

The Palace Museum is the Forbidden City itself: an entire imperial palace with galleries in its halls. It is a paid site. Tickets are 60 yuan from April to October and 40 yuan from November to March, with the Treasure Gallery and the Clock Gallery extra. Booking opens 7 days ahead at 20:00, foreign visitors can book with a passport on the museum's international ticket platform, and no tickets are sold on the day. It closes on Mondays except public holidays. Booking steps, the route through the palace and how to pair it with the National Museum are all in our Forbidden City guide.

Shanghai Museum East and the People's Square building

The Shanghai Museum (上海博物馆, Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn) is China's leading museum of ancient Chinese art: bronzes, ceramics, painting and calligraphy, jade. It now has two buildings with very different rules, and older guides get this wrong.

Shanghai Museum East, the large new building in Pudong, is where the permanent galleries are. Individual visitors do not need to book: you bring your original ID, go through security at the B1 east entrance near Dingxiang Road, and scan or show your ID to enter, with no ticket for the permanent galleries. A few interactive spaces still need a separate booking, and paid special exhibitions sell their own tickets. For a foreign visitor that means your passport; if the gate will not read it, use the staffed lane, and check the current entry method on arrival. It opens 10:00–18:00 with last entry at 17:00, closes on Tuesdays except national holidays, and is near Shanghai Science and Technology Museum station on Line 2. The museum can change its entry rules, so check the Shanghai Museum East visitor page the day before.

The smart-audio guide at the East building costs 40 yuan for a foreign-language set and 20 yuan for Chinese, needs no deposit, and plays automatically as you reach each object. English is available now; other languages are being added. Allow half a day.

The People's Square building is the original museum in the city centre. It reopened on 9 July 2026 with a paid special exhibition on the ancient civilisations of the Americas, which runs until 14 November 2027. If you want Chinese art, go to the East building; the People's Square building is only worth it if that exhibition interests you. Our Shanghai travel guide fits both into a city plan.

History museums: Xi'an, Nanjing, Wuhan and Changsha

Shaanxi History Museum (Xi'an)

The Shaanxi History Museum (陕西历史博物馆, Shǎnxī Lìshǐ Bówùguǎn) holds the best Tang dynasty collection in China: gold and silver, glazed tri-colour pottery, Silk Road objects. It is also one of the hardest free museums to book in the country.

The main building is free, and the only official booking channel is the museum's WeChat official account (search 陕西历史博物馆). Tickets open 5 days ahead at 17:00, you can fill in your details in advance and press "book" at release time, and visitors from outside mainland China can use a passport. Until 14 November 2026 the main building opens 8:30–19:00 with last entry at 18:00, and during this extended period there is no weekly closing day. Last winter, from 15 November to 14 March, hours were 9:00–17:30 and the main building closed on Mondays again. Expect the same pattern this winter, but confirm the new notice on the museum's site before you plan around it.

If you cannot get a slot, there are two ways in. The newer Qin and Han branch (秦汉馆, Qín-Hàn Guǎn), out in the Xixian New Area, is free and needs no booking: show your passport and staff check it at the door. And buying a ticket online in advance for one of the main building's paid exhibitions, such as the Tang mural gallery, means you do not need the free booking at all. Our Xi'an travel guide has the full booking table and a day-by-day plan.

Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum (the Terracotta Army)

The Terracotta Army sits in Lintong, east of Xi'an, inside Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum (秦始皇帝陵博物院). One ticket costs 120 yuan all year and covers both the Terracotta Army pits and the Lishan Garden, where the bronze chariots are. Every visitor books online under their real name, on the official site bmy.com.cn or the museum's WeChat accounts, and foreign visitors use their passport and show it at the gate. Foreign adults, including those over 60, pay the full price. It opens every day; from 16 November to 15 March the last entry is 16:30, and from 16 March to 15 November it is 17:00. Give it half a day. Transport and a combined plan with Huaqing Palace are in the Xi'an guide; for other trips out of the city, see our Xi'an day trips.

Nanjing Museum

The Nanjing Museum (南京博物院, Nánjīng Bówùyuàn) is one of China's oldest and largest museums, and foreign visitors often skip it. Its permanent galleries are free. Everyone must book, and the only channel is the museum's official WeChat mini program: tickets for the next 7 days come out at 18:00, in a morning slot (9:00–13:00) or an afternoon slot (12:00–16:00). Passport holders book in the same mini program, then go to the "green channel" window east of the main gate, where staff check the passport by hand. It opens 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:00, and closes on Mondays.

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders is free and also needs a real-name booking, made 1–7 days ahead on its WeChat official account, with new tickets at 08:00 and passports accepted. It also closes on Mondays. Our Nanjing travel guide shows how to plan around the city's Monday closures.

Hubei Provincial Museum (Wuhan)

Go to the Hubei Provincial Museum (湖北省博物馆) for the bronze chime bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng: a set of 65 bells hung in three tiers, made in the early Warring States period and dug up in 1978. The Sword of Goujian, almost free of rust after more than 2,500 years, is here too.

Entry is free but everyone books. Tickets go on sale up to 5 days ahead and the newest day opens at midnight; there are four entry slots a day and you must arrive in yours. Passports are accepted: after booking you get a QR code, and staff scan it with a handheld device at the entrance while you show the passport. Book on the museum's own website or WeChat official account. It closes on Mondays except public holidays; from October 2026 it opens 9:00–17:30 on weekdays and 9:00–20:30 at weekends. A 30-minute chime-bell concert runs four times a day, Tuesday to Sunday, at 50 yuan for adults, and you buy the seat after you are inside. The Tianlai hall on the south building's lower floor, the same floor as the concert hall, has been closed for maintenance since 8 October 2026, so check at the service desk that concerts are running on your day. See our Wuhan travel guide.

Hunan Museum (Changsha)

The Hunan Museum (湖南博物院) is the home of the Mawangdui Han tombs: the burial of a Western Han chancellor and his family, with silk, lacquer, silk manuscripts and more than 3,000 objects, displayed on the third floor. The plain silk gown on display weighs 49 grams.

The main exhibitions are free with a real-name timed booking, made up to 5 days ahead (not counting today) through the museum's WeChat service account or Alipay mini program, with the newest day released at 20:00; passports work for both booking and entry. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:00, and closes on Mondays. Our Changsha travel guide pairs it with Yuelu Academy.

Art museums: Suzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong

Suzhou Museum. The main building, designed by I. M. Pei and joined to an old prince's mansion, is a reason to visit Suzhou in its own right. It runs full real-name timed booking: up to 7 days ahead including today, on the museum's website, WeChat official account or booking mini program, with same-day slots if any are left. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:00, and closes on Mondays. Check the price and whether the booking form takes a passport on the museum's official account before you rely on it. The West branch in the Hi-Tech District is the opposite: free, no booking, same hours and Monday closing. The main building is next to Zhuozhengyuan Subo station on Metro Line 6, a short walk from the Humble Administrator's Garden, so the Suzhou guide plans them together.

China Art Museum (Shanghai). The red, crown-shaped former China Pavilion from Expo 2010 now holds modern Chinese art. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:00, and closes on Mondays except public holidays; the animated version of the scroll painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival is on the 49-metre level.

Power Station of Art (Shanghai). A former power plant on the river, now China's first state-run museum of contemporary art and the main venue of the Shanghai Biennale. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 11:00–19:00, last entry 18:00, and closes on Mondays except public holidays. For both Shanghai art museums, tickets and booking depend on the exhibition, so check the museum's official account for the show you want.

M+ (Hong Kong). Asia's big museum of modern visual culture, in the West Kowloon Cultural District. A standard ticket is HK$190 and a concession HK$100; children 6 and under need no ticket, and the Mediatheque, the Grand Stair and the roof garden are free. It opens 10:00–18:00, until 22:00 on Fridays, and closes on Mondays.

Hong Kong Palace Museum. Next door, with long-term loans from the Palace Museum in Beijing. A standard ticket for a set date and time is HK$70 and a flexible ticket for any time in the month is HK$90. It opens 10:00–18:00, until 20:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays, and closes on Tuesdays and the first two days of Chinese New Year. Because M+ closes on Mondays and the Palace Museum on Tuesdays, pick Wednesday to Sunday if you want both in one day. More on the city in our Hong Kong and Macau guide.

Two special trips: Sanxingdui and the Mogao Caves

Sanxingdui Museum (Guanghan, near Chengdu)

Sanxingdui (三星堆, Sānxīngduī) is the reason many people add a day to Chengdu: bronze masks with bulging eyes and huge ears, a towering bronze tree and gold masks, all from a Bronze Age culture that looks like nothing else in China. The museum is in Guanghan, north of Chengdu.

A standard ticket costs 72 yuan. Booking is required, not just recommended: individuals book under their real name on the museum's WeChat mini program, official account or website, and the museum says it has authorised no third party to sell tickets. Foreign visitors book first, then bring the passport they booked with to the ticket centre to exchange it for a ticket. Book as soon as your date is set; the booking channel shows which days are open. Foreign seniors and children should check the price shown at booking, since concession rules differ from site to site.

The exhibition halls open 8:30–18:00, last entry 17:00, and the museum does not close on Mondays: it closes only on Chinese New Year's Eve. The easiest way there is the Sanxingdui Tourist Express Line 1 from Chunxi Road in central Chengdu, leaving 7:00–16:00 and taking about two hours. A guided tour costs 400 yuan for a group of 1–10 people in Chinese or a foreign language, and audio guides can be rented in the main hall. It is a full day from Chengdu. The museum sometimes changes its hours for events, so check the announcements on its official site before you go.

Our Chengdu travel guide covers the city itself, and Chengdu day trips compares Sanxingdui with Leshan, Mount Emei and Dujiangyan if you only have one free day.

Mogao Caves (Dunhuang)

The Mogao Caves are Buddhist cave temples full of painted murals and statues, and they work like a museum with a strict booking system. Tickets are sold only through official channels: individuals use the "莫高窟参观预约网" (Mogao Caves booking) WeChat service account or mini program, and passport holders choose "Ticket Booking" in the service account menu. The regular ticket, with two films and eight caves, costs 238 yuan in the peak season and 140 yuan in the low season; the foreign-language guided ticket costs 258 yuan in peak season and 160 yuan in low season. Peak season runs 1 April to 30 November. Passport holders must collect a printed ticket at the window of the Mogao Digital Exhibition Center before entering, so arrive well before your slot. Booking steps, the visit route and the rest of Dunhuang are in our Dunhuang travel guide.

Museums are only part of the story. For temples, tombs, walls and old towns, our guide to China's historical sites covers the classic list and how hard each one is to book.

Before you go: booking, audio guides and bags

How passport booking usually works. The steps are similar almost everywhere:

1. Find the museum's official channel: its website, its WeChat official account or mini program, sometimes an Alipay mini program. Search the Chinese name in WeChat if you can, because the English name often finds copycat accounts.
2. Choose "passport" (护照, hùzhào) as the ID type and type the number exactly as printed.
3. Pick a date and a time slot, and add each person in your group with their own passport.
4. Take a screenshot of the confirmation, and bring the original passport you booked with.
5. At the entrance, look for the staffed lane or window. ID-card gates are for Chinese ID cards; passport holders are checked by hand, as at the Nanjing Museum and Sanxingdui.

Use the museum's own channel. Several museums state that they have authorised no third-party sellers, including the Shaanxi History Museum, Sanxingdui and the Mogao Caves. Most of these channels run inside WeChat, so set it up before you travel with our WeChat setup guide.

Cancel if you will not come. No-shows count against you. At the National Museum, three missed bookings on one ID block new bookings for 30 days. If your plans change, cancel in the same channel.

Audio guides and English. In our experience the big national and provincial museums label their main objects in English, but the longer explanations are mostly in Chinese. A rented audio guide fills the gap where one exists, as at Shanghai Museum East and Sanxingdui. At the Mogao Caves, a guide comes with every ticket and the foreign-language ticket adds a guide who speaks a foreign language; check which languages are offered when you book.

Bags and security. Every big museum has an airport-style security check. Travel light: leave suitcases at the hotel. At the Mogao Caves, suitcases and bags of 20 inches or more cannot go into the cave area, and the Digital Exhibition Center stores luggage for free. At the Nanjing Massacre memorial, large suitcases must be checked in, at 3 yuan each. Photography is banned inside the Mogao caves; elsewhere the rules differ by gallery, so follow the signs in each room.

Holidays. During Chinese holidays, museums change hours and daily caps. For the 2026 National Day holiday, for example, the Shaanxi History Museum opened 7:30–20:30 and raised its daily quota to 17,500, and it can still sell out. If you are travelling in the first week of October or around Chinese New Year, read our Golden Week guide and book the museum the minute tickets open.

Frequently asked questions

In short: book the National Museum, the Shaanxi History Museum, the Nanjing Museum and Sanxingdui as soon as their tickets open, walk into Shanghai Museum East with your passport, and check the closing day of every museum on your list, because it is not always Monday. Then open the city guide for each stop to plan the rest of the day.

Last updated: October 2026