Explore Beijing / Peking University & Tsinghua: How Foreign Visitors Actually Get In
Peking University & Tsinghua: How Foreign Visitors Actually Get In
The booking mini-programmes only accept mainland Chinese ID cards, so overseas visitors must book by email. This guide covers both email routes, the seasonal opening windows, the 180- and 90-day limits, and what to walk on each campus.
8 min read · KOULING's Beijing Travel Guide
Peking University and Tsinghua are two of the most requested addresses in Beijing, and neither is a tourist attraction: they are working universities that open their gates for free on a strict booking system. For foreign passport holders there is one extra step that decides everything — the booking mini-programmes only verify mainland Chinese ID cards, so Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas visitors must book by email instead. Get that wrong and you will queue at a gate you cannot pass. This guide covers the email route, each campus's calendar, what to see, and how to fit both into one day.
First: how a foreign passport actually gets in
This is the part every other guide skips, and it is the part that matters.
The problem — The 参观清华 (Visit Tsinghua) and 参观北大 (Visit PKU) WeChat mini-programmes currently support mainland Chinese ID card verification only. A foreign passport will not pass real-name verification.
Tsinghua — Email [email protected] between one and seven days ahead. State your name, the type and number of your travel document, a contact number, your preferred date and time slot, and attach a scan or photo of the document. The system processes applications automatically and confirms successful bookings by email.
Peking University — The Visit PKU booking notes direct Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign visitors to email [email protected] in advance. The university's visitor page (visitor.pku.edu.cn) also lists [email protected] — try it if the first address goes quiet.
Write in English — Both routes are run by university staff who handle foreign bookings regularly. A plain English email with the required fields is fine; keep it short and put the date and time slot on their own line.
Allow time — Send it five to seven days before you plan to go. Email is slower than the mini-programme, and if the first answer is a no you want room to try another date.
At the gate — Bring the physical passport you booked with. Where mainland visitors swipe an ID card, you will be checked by a person against your booking record — arrive 15 minutes early for that.
Nobody may charge you — Both universities are teaching and research institutions, not attractions, and neither charges any visitor fee. Any paid agent, internal quota or queue-jumping service is a scam.
The two calendars
Opening is seasonal, and the weekday rhythm is fixed.
Tsinghua slots — Entry windows are 08:00-11:00 and 13:00-16:00 on open days. Monday is a campus rest day and the university is closed to visitors.
PKU slots — The same two windows, 08:00-11:00 and 13:00-16:00, with everyone required to leave by 19:00 the same day.
Seasonal windows — Both run named open periods rather than year-round access: the 2026 summer window was 4 July to 11 August for Tsinghua and 11 July to 16 August for PKU; the winter window ran 22 January to 22 February for Tsinghua and 17 January to 23 February for PKU. Check the current notice before you plan — dates change every season.
Last entry — Tsinghua stops admitting at 11:00 for the morning session and 16:00 for the afternoon. Arrive late and the booking is treated as forfeited.
Sudden closures — Major campus events, exams and extreme weather close both campuses with no individual notice, and existing bookings lapse. See the extreme weather guide for the warning colours that trigger this.
Booking mechanics — For mainland residents: instant booking runs 08:00-17:00 for the next day or two, and a ballot runs 17:00-21:45 for dates further out. As an email booker you simply ask for your date.
The rules once you have a booking
Short list, strictly enforced.
Frequency limits — Tsinghua: one successful booking per person per 180 days. PKU: one per 90 days. Choose your date carefully.
Cancellation — Tsinghua cannot cancel after 08:00 on the day of the visit. PKU cannot cancel on the day itself, though cancelling earlier still leaves you free to book again.
No transfers — Bookings are non-transferable and tied to the named individual.
Group size — PKU: at least one adult per booking, up to four visitors aged eight and over plus two children under eight, who do not need their own slot but must be registered. Tsinghua: up to four people per booking, entering together; under-eights need no booking but must be accompanied.
Where you may go — Public roads and landscape areas only. Teaching buildings, libraries, laboratories, offices, student dorms and non-public canteens are closed. Stay on the signed routes.
No cars — Private cars and ride-hailing vehicles cannot enter either campus. Arrive by metro, on foot, or by bike.
Behaviour — No commercial filming or paid guiding, no amplified noise, no lying on lawns, and no walking on frozen lake surfaces — the ice is not rated for it.
Tsinghua: what to walk
Compact, and best entered with a plan.
The gate — Individual visitors enter through the dedicated channel on the south side of the West Gate and leave by the West Gate. Teams use the East Gate.
The set pieces — The 二校门 gate arch, the sundial (日晷) at the heart of campus, the Grand Auditorium, Tsinghua Academy, the old and new library buildings, and the 近春园 garden remains.
Free student guiding — During open periods student volunteers run four talks a day — 09:00, 10:00, 14:00 and 15:00 — leaving from the sundial, each about an hour. Look for the red vests; you can join partway through.
Three signed routes — The university publishes themed walking routes covering the early academic buildings, the 1930s expansion, and the historical sites. Download the 参观清华 mini-programme's campus map even if you cannot book through it — the map works regardless.
Time needed — Two hours covers the core; three if you join a talk. Do not plan a full day here.
PKU: what to walk
The prettier of the two campuses, and the gate confuses people.
East Gate only — The East Gate is the sole visitor entrance. The famous West Gate with its stone lions is for photographs only — you cannot enter there, and this is the single most common wasted walk.
The set pieces — Weiming Lake, the Boya Pagoda, the university library, and the Yan Yuan garden layout that makes this campus feel more like a classical garden than a university.
Winter bonus — When the lake freezes to a safe thickness the university opens an ice rink on Weiming Lake — roughly 3,000 square metres, open about 09:00 to 17:00, with skate and ice-chair hire booked by scanning a code, collected at the south-west door of the First Gymnasium. It depends entirely on the weather; check the same week.
Time needed — Ninety minutes to two hours. The campus is smaller than people expect and the lake loop is the whole point.
Out by 19:00 — Everyone must be off campus by 19:00, and once you leave you cannot re-enter.
Fitting both into a day
They are neighbours, so the sequencing is easy if you respect the clocks.
Metro — PKU East Gate is at Peking University East Gate station on line 4 — the station is named for the gate. Tsinghua's West Gate is about ten minutes on foot from Yuanmingyuan station on line 4, or fifteen from Wudaokou on line 13.
Morning at Tsinghua — Take the 08:00-11:00 slot, join the 09:00 or 10:00 student talk at the sundial, and walk out through the West Gate around 11:00.
Afternoon at PKU — Walk or ride to the East Gate for the 13:00-16:00 slot, do the Weiming Lake loop, and be out before 19:00.
Add Yuanmingyuan — The Old Summer Palace is immediately north of Tsinghua's West Gate and shares the same line 4 station. It is the natural third stop on this day, and it is a real ruin site rather than a rebuilt one.
Do not book both for the morning — Two morning slots are impossible in practice — the entry windows overlap and the campuses are a walk apart.
Half a day is enough — If you only have an afternoon, choose PKU. The lake and the pagoda are the photographs people actually want.
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