Sanxingdui Museum tickets for foreigners: booking, price, hours and how to get there in 2026

How to book Sanxingdui Museum tickets as a foreigner

Book in advance on the museum's official site, using the ‘Inbound tourists purchase tickets’ button on its visitor guide page (三星堆博物馆). Booking is real-name. After it succeeds, take the original of the ID document you booked with to the ticket center and exchange it for a ticket.

1. Open the visitor guide page and press the inbound button. It is separate from the individual and group buttons, and it is only for inbound visitors.
2. Book as soon as your date opens: tickets are released at 20:00 every day, up to 5 days ahead (next section).
3. After the booking succeeds, carry the original of the same ID document to the ticket center on the day.

Mainland residents are sent to the museum's WeChat mini program instead. The museum's FAQ for foreign visitors names the official website or the official WeChat account for advance booking. The guide page does not print the steps on the inbound booking site, the fields it asks for or the payment methods it takes. It also never uses the word passport: it says ‘the ID document you booked with’. We'd book with the document you will carry on the day.

What time are Sanxingdui Museum tickets released?

Day tickets and extended-hours tickets are released every day at 20:00 Beijing time, which is 12:00 UTC. You can book up to 5 days ahead.

For Golden Week and short public holidays, the museum releases all day and extended tickets at once, 5 days ahead. The 2026 holidays show the pattern. In a notice dated 20 September 2026, the museum said all Mid-Autumn tickets (25-27 September) would go on sale at 20:00 on 20 September, and all National Day tickets (1-7 October) at 20:00 on 26 September. Both holidays are over, so use this only as an example of timing.

Travel agency groups use a separate group button. They must book at least one day ahead and cannot book on the day of the visit.

Sanxingdui Museum ticket price: is it different for foreigners?

The standard ticket is ¥72. The guide page prints two discounts:

• ¥65 for veterans, with their own ID card and veteran's certificate.
• ¥36 for full-time students of undergraduate level and below, with their own valid student card.

The guide page does not print a separate price for foreigners, children or seniors, and it lists no free-entry groups. It writes the standard ticket as bought ‘with the buyer's own ID card’, and does not say what that means for a foreign visitor beyond the real-name booking rule above. So we can't say whether a foreign student card earns the ¥36 price. The page doesn't say, and the ticket enquiry line is 0838-5533333.

The price list does not mention extended (evening) tickets separately.

A 2024 government article (Ministry of Culture and Tourism mobile site, republished from China Tourism News, 19 September 2024) says mainland visitors could then book and enter only with the ID card, one ticket per ID card per visit day. That was stated for mainland visitors and is from 2024. Nothing on the museum's current guide page tells foreign visitors the same rule applies to them.

Sanxingdui Museum opening hours and evening tickets

6 October was an extended-hours day. The guide page does not print a closing time for ordinary days, so we don't give one.

The museum closes one day a year, Chinese New Year's Eve. Apart from that it does not close in principle, except for temporary notices.

Extended hours apply in Golden Week, short holidays, the winter holiday (as announced) and the summer holiday (July and August). On those days the museum is open 08:30-20:00, but the restoration hall is not included in the longer hours. Extended tickets are checked in from 17:00, and checking stops at 18:00, so an evening ticket means arriving between 17:00 and 18:00.

The museum says it opens until 20:00 and sells evening tickets in peak periods (winter and summer holidays, Spring Festival, National Day) for people who missed day tickets. It also says evening visits have fewer people. In 2024, Guanghan's Culture and Tourism Bureau reported that bus operating hours were moved to 20:30 to protect visitors with extended tickets. That is a 2024 statement, not today's timetable.

Sanxingdui tickets sold out? What to do

The museum says tickets often sell out in seconds. Its own advice:

• Save frequent-contact (traveller) details in advance.
• Clear your phone cache and use a strong signal.
• Be ready when tickets are released at 20:00 Beijing time.
• In peak periods, try the evening tickets.

For holidays, remember that everything is released at once on one evening, 5 days ahead of the first day.

Sanxingdui Museum refunds and missed slots

The museum's refund FAQ, dated 5 November 2025, says you can apply for a refund within 5 days counting from the day after your visit date. Its example: if you booked a visit on the 1st, you can refund until 20:00 on the 6th.

The same FAQ warns about the ‘no-show’ rule. If you miss 3 times within 60 days, you cannot book for the next 60 days. It says buying and refunding many times can also trigger the no-show mechanism. The museum also tells visitors to come at the time they booked.

The museum's refund FAQ doesn't say what happens if you turn up late for your slot, and it doesn't say whether cancelled tickets go back on sale. It is a Chinese-language page and does not say how refunds work on the inbound booking site.

How to get from Chengdu to Sanxingdui Museum

The museum is west of Guanghan, by the Yazi River (四川省广汉市城西鸭子河畔). The guide page lists driving and high-speed rail. A museum notice dated 5 November 2025 adds buses.

Train

Two different stations are involved, so always check which one is on your ticket.

• Guanghan North (广汉北). The guide page says there are intercity trains from Chengdu to Guanghan and you get off at Guanghan North, then take a bus to the museum.
• Sanxingdui station (三星堆). It is on the Chuan-Qing Railway. The National Railway Administration reported that the Qingbaijiang East to Zhenjiangguan section, which passes Sanxingdui, opened on 28 November 2023. The museum's November 2025 notice says there is a museum special bus line at the Sanxingdui high-speed rail station.

On the 12306 English site, the two stations both appear under ‘Sanxingdui’. The table below is one day's sample from a search made on 8 October 2026 for Thursday 15 October 2026. Search your own date: trains and fares change.

The same search listed 15 trains to Guanghan North, all from Chengdu East. Most take 18 minutes. Every second-class fare to Guanghan North from Chengdu East carried a discount label: ¥18 to ¥21 (4% to 18% off), so full fares are higher. One of the 15 trains, D1726, can also be boarded at Chengdu South (成都南) at 15:19; from there it takes 39 minutes and the second-class fare shown was ¥28 (6% off). The four Sanxingdui station trains in the table showed ¥25 with no label. For where Chengdu East is and how to reach it, see our Chengdu railway stations guide.

Going back, the sample showed 24 trains to Chengdu East. Eighteen leave Guanghan North between 07:34 and 21:12. Six leave Sanxingdui station: C5745 at 10:01, C5791 at 14:47, C5785 at 15:05, C5751 at 16:08, C5765 at 19:31 and C5795 at 20:11. If you are on an evening ticket, check your return train before you book.

The museum's visitor guide and transport FAQ give no distance from either station to the museum or bus journey times from the stations. We don't give a walking or bus time for that reason.

Bus

The museum's notice of 5 November 2025 lists:

• The Chengdu-Deyang tourist bus. Buy in the ‘成德旅游直通车’ mini program or scan the code on site.
• Guanghan city buses 6, 11, 13 and 16, which all go to the museum.
• A museum special line at Sanxingdui high-speed rail station.
• The ‘Tianfuxing’ (天府行) customised coach. Its Guanghan-Chengdu timetable and fares are in its mini program.

The museum's transport FAQ gives no timetable or fare for buses 6, 11, 13 and 16 or for the Sanxingdui station special line. Separately, Guanghan's transport bureau said a C3 intercity bus from Guanghan to Qingbaijiang began a trial run on 11 August 2025. It is 20 km and ¥2 per person, with 27 stops including the museum. That was a trial notice, so we can't say it still runs.

Driving, taxi and ride-hailing

The guide page says Chengdu to Sanxingdui is under 30 kilometres, by the G108 national road or the Beijing-Kunming expressway. It prints no normal driving time. Drivers should navigate to the ‘三星堆博物馆停车场’ (Sanxingdui Museum car park). Taxis and ride-hailing cars use a designated drop-off point at the car park, and an underground walkway links the car park and the museum. If you want a car or guide for the day, we can arrange a private car and a local guide from Chengdu. We don't book museum tickets.

Guides, audio guides and facilities

• Human guide, new hall (exhibition hall): 90 minutes, service hours 08:30-11:50 and 13:00-17:00. Chinese guiding is ¥400 per session for 1-10 people and ¥600 for 11-20 people. Foreign-language guiding is the same price. A group Chinese tour is ¥30 per person once 20-30 people sign up. The museum says the guide model may change after the trial. The page does not list which languages are offered.
• Audio guide: ¥30 per unit. MR guide: ¥38 per unit. Both rent from the exhibition hall, 08:30-17:00.
• Excavation site: not open.
• Wheelchairs and strollers: can be borrowed at the visitor center and the exhibition hall lobby.
• Photography: no flash, no selfie sticks, no touching exhibits, and no photos where a no-photo sign is posted.