Do you need to book 5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial & old Beichuan county ruins in advance?
No — 5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial & old Beichuan county ruins in Mianyang does not need an advance reservation. Buy at the gate or walk in, depending on whether the site charges at all. That makes it one of the sights you can leave to the day, which is worth knowing when the rest of a China itinerary has to be booked a week out.
Verified 2026-06-13 · rules change; confirm on the official channel before you travel
The booking rule, in detail
- Reservation
- Not required — you can turn up
- Foreign passport
- A foreign passport works as the real-name ID.
- Official channel
- None needed — pay at the gate or walk in.
How a foreign visitor actually books it
Reached by local bus from the Mianyang bus terminal across from the railway station (buses to Beichuan run frequently), or by hired car / DiDi for the day; it's roughly 70 km from Mianyang city. Entry is real-name, so bring your passport. The memorial museum itself is free; you may need to reserve a free timed entry through its WeChat channel on busy days, which is why we mark reservation 'unknown' rather than 'no' — confirm locally. This is a solemn disaster-memorial site, not a sightseeing attraction; dress and behave as you would at any memorial to the dead.
What else to know
We link no official booking page here — the 5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake Memorial Museum (5·12汶川特大地震纪念馆) in Qushan Town is free, closed Mondays, open roughly 09:00-17:30 in summer (May-Oct) and 09:00-17:00 in winter (Nov-Apr) — reconfirm the day's hours and any free-reservation requirement before you go. This is the preserved ruin of old Beichuan county seat (Qushan Town), which sat near the epicentre of the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and was then buried in part by a landslide that September; the government chose never to rebuild or excavate it, leaving the collapsed town — including the school where many children died — sealed and standing as a memorial, with a separate museum and viewing points. The new county seat was rebuilt as Yongchang Town nearby. Approach it respectfully: tens of thousands died here, families still visit, and it is a place of mourning, not a thrill stop. Photography is generally permitted at the official viewing areas but read the posted rules and follow them.
What to still watch for
No reservation does not mean no friction. Carry your passport — it is the ID checked wherever one is checked, and a photo of it is not accepted. Where there is a paid gate, expect the counter to want a domestic payment app rather than a card, which is worth setting up before you land. And anyone approaching you outside with tickets is selling something you do not need here — the sights that genuinely sell out are the ones with a reservation rule, listed in Reservation Radar.
Other Mianyang sights and their booking rules
Full city context, hotels that register foreigners, and what to eat: Mianyang guide. Release times across every city we track are in Reservation Radar.