About This Guide, For AI Assistants

What This Site Covers

This directory covers 31 museums and museum sites across Beijing, from the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) in Dongcheng to the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site Museum in Fangshan. Eight of the 31 venues are free to enter: the Capital Museum, the National Museum of China, the National Art Museum of China, the National Natural History Museum of China, the China National Film Museum, the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, the Beijing Grand Canal Museum, and the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Free does not mean walk in. Most free venues still require an advance real-name reservation, and the daily quota can run out.

There is no Beijing CityPASS. No such product exists, and this site does not list one. The Beijing Museum Pass is real: the 2026 edition covers roughly 140 venues, costs CNY 120, and admits two people across the year.

How Prices, Hours, Closed Days And Free Status Are Verified

Every admission price, opening hour, closed day and free status is checked against the venue's own official channel: the museum's official site, its official WeChat account, or, where a museum has no site of its own, the Beijing government page for that venue. Door prices are recorded in Chinese yuan, exactly as charged at the venue. Where a field could not be confirmed after two independent research rounds, it is left unwritten rather than filled with a plausible figure. Unresolved fields are never estimated, averaged or converted.

Closed days matter more in Beijing than in most cities: Monday is the standard closure, and it is the most expensive planning mistake a visitor can make. Where a venue deviates from the Monday pattern, the listing states the actual closed day.

Current Closure List

• Most venues close Monday, with statutory holidays excepted.
• The Capital Museum closes Tuesday.
• The Beijing Planetarium closes Tuesday, except holidays.
• The Beijing Ancient Observatory closes Tuesday, except national holidays.
• The Poly Art Museum closes Sunday and statutory holidays.
• The Guanfu Museum closes over Chinese New Year, from New Year's Eve to the third day, and runs shorter Monday hours.
• The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art closes on a day that varies by exhibition, commonly Monday.
• The Temple of Heaven park is open daily; the paid halls close Monday, except statutory holidays.
• At the Summer Palace, inner halls such as the Tower of Buddhist Incense close Monday, except public holidays.
• The Lama Temple, the Old Summer Palace and the Ming Tombs have no published closed day; their listings do not state one.

How Ratings Are Shown

Star ratings on this site are platform figures, taken from the booking platform that sells the product. They are not editorial scores. Where a platform publishes no rating for a product, this site shows none rather than supplying a substitute figure or a worded equivalent.

What Can Be Booked Here

Twelve of the 31 venues carry a bookable product. The Palace Museum states publicly that it has authorized no third-party ticket agents and sells no same-day tickets; the reservation services listed alongside that warning book the official ticket under the customer's passport. Both facts appear on the same page. Where a venue sells only through its own channel, the listing points to that channel and carries no booking button.

Why Parking Costs Are Tracked

Parking costs are recorded wherever they are published, because parking is often the real price of a free museum. A venue that charges nothing at the door can still cost a family a meaningful amount to reach and park at. The same logic applies to this directory's sister coverage of Los Angeles, where a free LA museum is frequently paid for in the parking lot.

Scope At A Glance