How to book China attraction tickets with a passport

✅ Updated Aug 2026

The single most common way a China trip goes wrong is turning up at a famous site expecting to buy a ticket at the gate. China's major museums and monuments run on real-name advance reservation: the ticket is tied to your passport, numbers are capped daily, and for several of the biggest sites there is no same-day sale at all. Arriving without a booking usually means not getting in — not queuing longer. The Forbidden City is the clearest example. It does not sell same-day tickets, admits a capped number of visitors per day, and requires a real-name reservation tied to your passport. Reservations generally open about a week ahead. One booking can cover a small group if you enter each person's passport details, and each of them needs their own passport with them on the day. The Terracotta Army works the same way and on a similar week-ahead window, extending further around public holidays. Windows do differ from site to site, so check the attraction's own announcement rather than assuming one national rule. Nearly all of this booking happens inside WeChat mini-programs rather than on ordinary websites — which used to be a hard barrier for visitors and no longer is, since WeChat now accepts registration with a foreign phone number. Some attractions also sell tickets through Meituan, which is worth checking if a mini-program defeats you. A mini-program that is entirely in Chinese is not the dead end it looks like. Look first for a built-in language switch — several of the big official ones, the Summer Palace among them, put a 中文 / English toggle straight on the home screen. Where there is no toggle, tap the three dots in the top-right corner: a drawer slides up from the bottom of the screen, and in its lower row of icons is a translate button, marked with an A above the character 文. Tapping it re-renders the entire mini-program in your own language, menus and forms included. This is worth knowing far beyond ticket booking — it works across mini-programs generally, and it turns guessing at a form into simply reading it. Once you can read the form, the booking itself is ordinary. There is an add-traveller step, where the document type defaults to the Chinese ID card and you switch it to passport, then enter each person's details. Whether the name goes into one field or splits into surname and given name differs from site to site, which is another reason to translate the interface first. Enter the name exactly as printed in the passport, including the order and any middle names — a mismatch is treated as a different person. Popular slots at the headline sites disappear within minutes of release, especially in summer and around public holidays. Find out the release hour for your date and be ready at that moment, rather than browsing casually the night before. If a site is genuinely sold out, a guided tour booked through a licensed operator is the legitimate way in — treat anyone offering to sell you a "held" ticket outside official channels with suspicion. Getting in is simpler than the booking. Reserving online gets you a QR code, and that code is what you scan at the barrier — there is no paper ticket in the picture. Carry the passport you booked with anyway, since the reservation is in your name and staff can ask to see it. Buying on the spot, where a site still allows it, works the old way instead: show your passport at the ticket window, take the paper ticket you are given, and use that at the barrier. Either way, arrive with a little time in hand rather than exactly on your slot.

1. 1

   Check the site's booking window — around a week ahead for the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Army — and be ready at the release hour, because headline sites sell out within minutes.

   预约 · yùyuē

2. 2

   Install WeChat and register with your own phone number; nearly all official booking runs through WeChat mini-programs. Some attractions also sell on Meituan.

3. 3

   Chinese-only mini-program? Look for a 中文/English toggle on the home screen first. If there is none, tap the three dots at the top right and use the translate button in the drawer's lower row — the icon is an A above 文 — to convert the whole mini-program into your language.

4. 4

   In the add-traveller step, switch the document type from Chinese ID card to passport before entering the details.

5. 5

   Type the name exactly as printed in the passport — a mismatch is treated as a different person at the gate. Some forms use one name field, others split surname and given name.

6. 6

   Screenshot the QR code you are given; that code is what you scan at the barrier, and there is no paper ticket to collect.

7. 7

   Carry the passport you booked with anyway, and arrive with time in hand rather than exactly on your slot. Buying on the spot instead means showing your passport at the window and using the paper ticket you get.

   售票处 · shòupiào chù