Book Beijing Attractions 2026: Passport Tickets Guide

Beijing's headline sights are not places you walk up to and buy a ticket for. The Palace Museum, the National Museum and the main Great Wall sections run on real-name, advance-only reservation tied to the passport in your pocket — and the busiest one releases tickets seven days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time, into a window that can close in minutes during holiday weeks. None of this is difficult, but it is unforgiving: arrive without a booking and you will photograph the gate and leave. This guide is the booking layer of your trip — what must be reserved, when it goes on sale, which channel actually accepts a foreign card, and the handful of mistakes that cost visitors a whole day. Prices and times below were checked in 2026 against official and major booking sources; always confirm on the official channel before you go.

What "real-name" actually means for you

Almost every major Beijing sight sells tickets against a government ID number. For you, that ID is your passport. Four consequences follow, and they are the same almost everywhere:

One passport, one ticket, one date — The same passport can generally hold only one admission for a given day. Book each traveller separately — including children, who have their own passports and often their own ticket type.
Enter with the document you booked with — Bring the original physical passport to the gate. A screenshot or a phone photo of the passport is not accepted as a substitute.
Name and number must match character for character — Copy the passport number carefully, including hyphens and spaces exactly as printed. A typo is much harder to fix than the ten seconds it takes to check it.
Tickets are non-transferable — You cannot buy under your name and hand it to a friend, and you cannot resell it. If plans change, cancel and rebook rather than trying to pass it on.

Tiananmen Square is a separate reservation

This is the mistake that ruins the first morning more often than any other. The square in front of the Forbidden City is not part of the palace, has its own free entry system, and is reached by walking north through it to reach Meridian Gate.

Your Palace Museum ticket does not cover the square — The square needs its own free reservation, booked through its own channel for a chosen day and time slot. Two bookings, one morning.
Security is airport-style — Passport check plus bag screening, with the longest queues mid-morning. Allow an extra 30–45 minutes on top of your travel time.
Approach from the south and walk north — You come through the Tiananmen gate complex on foot to reach the palace's Meridian Gate. There is no vehicle drop-off that shortens this.
The rules here change most often — The square's booking channel and slot rules have been adjusted more than once. ⚠️ 待人工确认 — check the current official announcement in the week you travel.

Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

The single booking that decides the shape of your trip. Capacity is capped, tickets for a date go on sale seven days earlier at 20:00 Beijing time, and there is no same-day sale and no ticket window for walk-ups. In spring, autumn, the summer school holidays and any national holiday week, morning slots can disappear within minutes of release.

Metro: Line 1 to Tiananmen East (Tiananmen Dong) or Tiananmen West, then north on foot through the square security checkpoint.
Opening hours: 8:30–17:00 from 1 April to 31 October (last entry around 16:00); 8:30–16:30 from 1 November to 31 March (last entry around 15:30). Closed every Monday except public holidays.
Tickets: ¥60 peak season (1 Apr–31 Oct), ¥40 off-peak (1 Nov–31 Mar). The Treasure Gallery and the Gallery of Clocks are ¥10 each and must be bought at the same time as entry — they cannot be added after you are inside.
How long: 3 hours for the central axis; half a day with the side galleries and Jingshan Park afterwards.

Getting a Palace Museum ticket when it looks sold out

Work through these in order. Most people give up after step one and either pay far too much or lose the sight entirely.

Set an alarm for 20:00 Beijing time, seven days out — That is the release moment for your date. Being two minutes early with your details ready is the entire game.
Prepare a paste-ready block of details — Full name as printed, passport number, nationality and date of birth for every traveller, plus a working payment method. Typing this from scratch at 20:00 is how you miss the window.
Morning slots go first — take afternoon if that is what is left — An afternoon session still gives you the whole route; a missed morning does not. Note that morning tickets must usually be checked by around 12:00, and afternoon entry opens around 11:00.
Check back at the evening release — Cancelled tickets return to the pool, and the 20:00 release window is when most of them reappear.
Use the official overseas fallback — The Palace Museum publishes an email route for international visitors ([email protected]) — send full name, passport number and intended date, at least one calendar day ahead. ⚠️ 待人工确认 — verify the address and current requirements on the official site.
Book a guided tour that holds an allocation — Operators reserve inventory and pre-register your passport. It costs more, but it is the dependable backup when your dates are fixed.
Never plan the palace on a Monday — It is closed every Monday of the year except public holidays. Fix your non-Monday date before you book flights or trains.

National Museum of China

Free, enormous, and one of the hardest reservations in the city because the price removes the usual brake on demand. It sits on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square, so it pairs naturally with a palace morning — but as a separate booking, on a separate day if the palace is closed.

Metro: Line 1 to Tiananmen East (Tiananmen Dong); the museum entrance is on the east side of the square.
Opening hours: Typically 09:00–17:00 with last entry around 16:00, closed Mondays except public holidays. Hours shift for special exhibitions — confirm before you go.
Tickets: Free admission, but a real-name passport reservation is still required. Slots are released roughly seven days ahead and weekend dates go quickly.
How long: 2–3 hours for the Ancient China halls; a full morning if you linger.

The Great Wall: two very different booking jobs

The wall is not one attraction. Which section you pick changes how hard the booking is, how long the day takes and how many people you share it with.

Badaling — closest, busiest, book ahead — About ¥40 in peak season and ¥35 off-peak. Tickets are released days to around a week ahead; supply is usually better than the Palace Museum but holiday weeks do sell out. Reachable by high-speed train from Beijing North or by direct coach.
Mutianyu — the easier booking and the better first visit — About ¥45 entry, released further ahead, and walk-up tickets are often available outside holidays. Fewer crowds, more trees, and a cable car up plus a toboggan down.
Lifts are separate line items — Budget roughly ¥100 each way for the cable car or chairlift and about ¥100 for the toboggan descent. Add them to the entry order when you can rather than buying on site.
Buy the section by name — Listings that say only "Great Wall" sometimes mean a section hours away, or bundle in shopping stops. Check the Chinese section name on the confirmation.
Release windows have moved before — Both sections have adjusted their advance-booking windows in recent years. ⚠️ 待人工确认 — check the section's official account in the week you travel.

Mutianyu Great Wall

For most first-time visitors with fixed dates, this is the section to book: the reservation is the least stressful of the big three, the scenery is better than Badaling, and the cable car makes it workable for mixed fitness levels. The cost is the journey — it is a genuine full day out of Beijing.

Metro: No metro. Direct tourist coaches leave from central pick-up points in the early morning; by public transport take express bus 916 from Dongzhimen towards Huairou and change to a local bus — allow around two hours each way.
Opening hours: Roughly 07:30–18:00 in the warmer months, shorter in winter. The cable car and toboggan stop running well before the gate closes.
Tickets: Around ¥45 entry. Cable car or chairlift about ¥100 one way and roughly ¥140–180 return; the toboggan down about ¥100. Prices move seasonally.
How long: A full day door to door. Allow 2–3 hours on the wall itself for the Towers 14 to 23 stretch.

Summer Palace

The most forgiving of the big names. It is larger than most people expect, the reservation is easier to get than the palace or the wall, and off-season you can frequently buy at the gate. Book it anyway in spring, autumn and on any weekend, when the morning slots tighten.

Metro: Line 4 to Beigongmen (North Palace Gate) is the classic visitor entrance; Xiyuan on Lines 4 and 16 serves the East Gate.
Opening hours: The park opens around 06:00 and closes around 20:00 in summer, earlier in winter. The ticketed halls inside keep shorter hours, roughly 08:30–17:00.
Tickets: About ¥30 in peak season and ¥20 off-peak for park entry; a through-ticket covering the halls is around ¥60. Boat crossings on Kunming Lake cost extra.
How long: 3–4 hours if you walk the Long Corridor and climb to the Tower of Buddhist Incense.

Which channel to book through

There is no single best answer — there is a trade-off between English support and price. Pick per sight rather than picking one tool for the whole trip.

An international booking platform (Trip.com, Klook, GetYourGuide) — English interface, foreign Visa and Mastercard accepted, passport handled inside the booking flow, English refunds. You pay a modest markup over face value — easily worth it for the Palace Museum.
The sight's WeChat mini-program — Cheapest and often first to have inventory, especially for the wall. Entirely Chinese interface and you need WeChat Pay working. This is what locals use.
The official English website, where one exists — The Palace Museum runs an English booking site. Foreign-card declines and Chinese-only error messages are common — always have a second channel ready.
GO BEIJING (inside Alipay) — Beijing's official foreign-visitor platform pulls a lot of services together in English, including transport and visitor help. Worth opening once your Alipay is running.
Your hotel front desk — Not a booking channel, but staff walk overseas guests through these forms every day and can often complete one for you if you get stuck.
Screenshot every confirmation — Save the QR code and the reference number to your photos. Mobile data is patchy at gates and underground, and you may need to show it offline.

Related Beijing guides

If you found this useful, these cover the next question most visitors ask:

First Time — First Time in Beijing
Practical Tips — How to Avoid Fake Travel Websites and Booking Scams for Your China Trip
Transport — Booking Multiple High-Speed Rail Tickets in One Go: Limits and ID Rules

A booking order that actually works

1. Palace Museum first — It constrains everything else: a Monday closure and a seven-day release window mean your whole itinerary bends around this one date.
2. Then the Great Wall day — Choose the section, then the transport — coach, train or car. This is the second-hardest piece to rearrange at short notice.
3. Then the free-but-booked museums — The National Museum and similar cost nothing, which is exactly why the reservation is the scarce thing.
4. Parks last — Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Beihai and the city parks are the most flexible; outside peak weeks you can often buy at the gate.
Recheck everything 48 hours out — Opening hours, temporary closures and release rules do change. A two-minute check on the official channel saves a wasted morning.
Carry the physical passport every day — Real-name checks happen at attraction gates, occasionally at metro security and at hotel check-in. A photo of the ID page speeds up form-filling, but it will not get you through the gate.

Booking Beijing's Big Sights: Real-Name Tickets, Passport Entry and What Sells Out