The booking wall verified
These sell out or block foreigners if you arrive unprepared — the dates, the official link, and whether your passport works.
The Forbidden City
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- 7 days out, 20:00
- Price
- ¥60
- Foreigners
- Passport works
- Resellers
- None official
Book with your passport via the official channel only. No WeChat Pay? The museum takes booking requests by email at bookingticket@dpm.org.cn, and there is a manned window left of the Meridian Gate for passport holders when allocation remains.
No same-day tickets; sells out within minutes.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
National Museum of China
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- Daily 17:00, up to 7 days
- Price
- Free (still needs booking)
- Foreigners
- Passport works
- Resellers
- None official
Passport is valid ID; foreigners enter on the reservation QR. Real-name account required first; the booking form also asks for a local contact number, so have your hotel's number ready or ask the front desk to book for you.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Badaling Great Wall
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- Real-name online sales, up to 7 days ahead
- Price
- ¥40
- Foreigners
- Passport works
Here's the catch: the official online booking system wants a Chinese mobile number to register, which locks most visitors out. Passport holders can buy at the on-site ticket windows, or have a hotel concierge or licensed agency book the slot.
Arrive early or late in the day; midday is tour-group rush hour. Cable car and toboggan are ticketed separately.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Temple of Heaven
✓ 2026-06-11- Price
- ¥34
- Foreigners
- Passport works
WeChat ticketing often fails for foreign cards and IDs. Buying at the gate with your passport works fine and is the normal route for foreign visitors.
Price shown is the through ticket (park + main halls), the one you want. The park opens much earlier than the halls — locals do tai chi at dawn.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Summer Palace
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- Daily around 21:00, up to 7 days ahead
- Price
- ¥30
- Foreigners
- Passport works
Booking online with a passport does work here: the official park ticketing system lists passports, residence permits and Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan permits as valid IDs, and foreign holders enter at the East, North, New, South-Ruyi, North-Ruyi or West gates by scanning their own ticket QR alongside that document. If the Chinese-only form defeats you, window sales at the gate stay open for passport holders, which is the usual fallback.
The through ticket (entry + inner sights) costs more and is worth it. Allow half a day; the Long Corridor and the lake ferry are the highlights.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Mutianyu Great Wall
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- Real-name online sales, up to 30 days ahead
- Price
- —
- Foreigners
- Passport works
Unlike Badaling, Mutianyu runs an English-language booking page on its own official site, and a passport counts as a valid ID — one ticket per document per day. That makes it one of the easier Beijing sights to book yourself in advance without a Chinese phone number. Bring the same passport you booked with for the gate scan.
The quieter, greener Great Wall section, about 1.5-2 hours from central Beijing. Cable car, chairlift and the toboggan down are ticketed separately from entry. Cheaper to reach by joining a shuttle or hiring a car than by piecing together public buses.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Juyongguan Great Wall
✓ 2026-06-11- Price
- —
- Foreigners
- Unclear
Everyone, including free-entry categories, now has to reserve a ticket before entering and show a valid ID or QR code at the gate. The catch is that the only booking channel we can confirm is the Changping Culture & Tourism Group's WeChat account and mini-program, which is Chinese-only and not clearly set up for passports. Until that's confirmed, treat buying yourself as uncertain; have your hotel try the reservation, or pick Badaling or Mutianyu where the passport path is clearer.
officialBookingUrl is null: the verified channel is a WeChat mini-program, not a website foreigners can use directly. The closest Great Wall section to Beijing and far less crowded than Badaling, set in a valley between two mountains. Worth it if you want the Wall without the crush, but sort the booking before you set out.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Ming Tombs (Shisanling)
✓ 2026-06-11- Price
- —
- Foreigners
- Unclear
Tickets are sold online only — the verified channel is the Changping Culture & Tourism Group mini-program, which is in Chinese and doesn't clearly accommodate passports. There's no English booking site we could confirm, so the safe move is to have your hotel reserve it, or to visit as part of a guided day trip that handles the ticketing.
officialBookingUrl is null: the channel is a Chinese-only WeChat mini-program, not a passport-friendly website. The UNESCO-listed Ming imperial mausoleums, usually paired with the Great Wall on a north-of-Beijing day. Each tomb is booked separately and some guided slots (e.g. Yongling, Siling) are capped at very small numbers, so popular dates fill up.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
National Art Museum of China (NAMOC)
✓ 2026-06-11- Price
- Free (still needs booking)
- Foreigners
- Unclear
Free, but you must reserve a timed slot in advance through the museum's official WeChat mini-program — there's no separate website, and the mini-program is Chinese-only. Daily places are limited. Whether it accepts a passport in the booking form isn't confirmed, so if the app blocks you, ask your hotel to book it. Bring your original physical passport for entry either way; digital copies aren't accepted.
officialBookingUrl is null: booking is via a Chinese-only WeChat mini-program, not a website. Beijing's national fine-arts museum near Wangfujing; reserve ahead since same-day walk-ins aren't the norm and slots cap out.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Natural History Museum of China (Beijing)
✓ 2026-06-11- Release
- Daily around 11:00, 1-3 days ahead
- Price
- Free (still needs booking)
- Foreigners
- Unclear
Free, real-name, timed entry: reserve 1 to 3 days ahead through the museum's official site (yuyue.bmnh.org.cn) or WeChat account, then enter at your booked time slot. The English-language reserve page says passport details are used for foreign visitors, but the form is awkward, so have your hotel help if it stalls. Bring the passport you booked with.
Formerly the Beijing Museum of Natural History, popular with families for its dinosaur halls, so weekend and holiday slots go fast. Reserve before you go; there's no reliable same-day counter.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Landing & registration
The first-24-hours facts: hotels, police registration, and whether your card works.
- Hotels take foreigners
- Mixed — check first
- Foreign card via Alipay/WeChat
- Works
- Police registration
- Stay where they can register foreign guests with the police, or you may be turned away at check-in.
Eat like a local
What to order, where locals actually queue, and the food-street traps to skip.
Roast duck carved tableside, wrapped in thin pancakes with scallion and sweet bean sauce.
Order a half duck for two people; say 'yí bàn' (one half).
Savory breakfast crepe with egg, crisp cracker and chili paste, folded to go.
Morning windows only; point and hold up fingers for quantity.
Thick wheat noodles under a dark fermented soybean and pork sauce; mix before eating.
A hutong lunch staple; comes with raw vegetable slivers on top.
Skewered hawthorn berries dipped in hard sugar glaze, tart under the crunch.
Winter street carts do it best; the plain hawthorn one is the classic, not the strawberry.
Fermented mung-bean drink, sour and divisive, drunk with a fried dough ring.
An acquired Beijing taste; pair it with jiaoquan and try a small cup first.
Skip the famous flagships with two-hour queues unless the ceremony matters to you. Mid-range sit-down places roast the same bird for ¥200-300 a duck. It's carved tableside; wrap slices in the pancakes with scallion and sweet bean sauce. One duck feeds two to three.
A jianbing (savory crepe with egg, crisp wonton and chili paste) from a morning window runs ¥8-12 and locals eat it standing. If a place has a queue of commuters at 8am, that's your endorsement. Pay with Alipay/WeChat — even carts take it.
The zhajiangmian and dumpling shops worth finding are a few blocks off the main drags, with handwritten menus and no English. Point at a neighbor's plate or use Alipay's camera translate. Nobody minds, and it's the best food-per-yuan in the city.
The honest layer
The part a tourism board will never print.
Wangfujing snack-street scorpions are a photo op, not dinner: overpriced and aimed at tourists. Locals eat in the hutong alleys a couple of blocks east.
Some budget guesthouses quietly turn away foreigners because they aren't set up to register you with the police. Filter for properties that explicitly accept foreign passports, or you'll be moved at 11pm.
Several official booking systems. Badaling Great Wall and the Summer Palace among them — want a mainland mobile number before they'll even register you. It's not personal; the systems were built for domestic real-name rules. The workarounds, in order: buy at the on-site window with your passport, ask your hotel front desk to book the slot, or use the attraction's email channel where one exists (the Forbidden City answers bookingticket@dpm.org.cn). Don't waste an evening fighting the form.
Badaling is the restored, accessible, crowded one, fine if time is short. Mutianyu costs more to reach but is noticeably calmer with the same postcard views. The 'wild wall' day tours sold online often skirt rules and insurance; if you want unrestored wall, go with a licensed operator.
Straight answers
Can I book the Forbidden City as a foreigner?
Yes, with your passport, through the official channel only. Tickets release 7 days ahead at 20:00 Beijing time and sell out within minutes. No same-day tickets, and no third-party reseller is authorized. If you can't pay through the Chinese app flow, email bookingticket@dpm.org.cn with your details.
Why won't some hotels take foreigners?
It comes down to police registration. Properties that aren't set up to register foreign guests will decline you at check-in. Book ones that state they accept foreign passports.
Do I need cash, or will my foreign card work?
Mostly mobile pay. Foreign cards now link to Alipay and WeChat Pay for most things, but carry some cash as a backup for small vendors.
How do I book the Badaling Great Wall without a Chinese phone number?
The official online system requires a mainland mobile number to register, which blocks most visitors. Buy at the ticket windows on site with your passport (arrive early in peak season), or ask your hotel to make the real-name booking for you. Ignore resellers promising 'guaranteed' slots at a markup.
Do the Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace need advance booking?
No — both still sell tickets at the gate, and that's the practical route for foreigners since their online systems want a Chinese mobile number. Bring your passport. Buy the through ticket at each; the basic gate ticket skips the buildings you came to see.