Shaanxi History Museum tickets: how to book with a passport in 2026

How to book Shaanxi History Museum tickets with a passport

The main building is free, but you must reserve a time slot first. The museum's pages describe one way to do it: scan the QR code on its English reservation page, which leads to the museum's official WeChat account, 陕西历史博物馆 (Shaanxi History Museum). A passport is accepted. The Qin-Han Gallery, the museum's second site, needs no reservation at all.

The booking steps on the English page are:

1. Log in or register.
2. Choose Ticket Reservation.
3. Select your ID type (passport) and enter the ID number.
4. Enter the verification code.
5. Pick a time slot and confirm.

Valid IDs for the main building are the PRC resident ID card, the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents, the Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents, a passport, and the PRC Permanent Residence ID Card for Foreigners. The Chinese guide page adds that visitors from mainland China may only use the ID card, while everyone else uses one of the other documents or a passport.

No WeChat? Can I book another way or just show up?

The museum's pages describe only the WeChat route for the main building. The Chinese guide page and the English reservation and Visit pages name no website, app or phone booking, and don't say what a visitor without WeChat should do. The English reservation page also doesn't say what registration needs, for example whether a Chinese phone number is required. If you can't register, the visitor hotline is 029-85253806, answered during museum opening hours.

Turning up without a booking does not work for the main building: the guide says no reservation means no entry. The free-entry exceptions are listed further down.

When are tickets released? Do they sell out in seconds?

Both the Chinese guide page and the English Visit page give the same rule: reservations open 5 days ahead, with time slots released every day at 17:00. The Chinese page gives an example: on 1 July you can book 6 July.

The Chinese guide page and the English reservation and Visit pages say nothing about how fast slots go, so there is no official answer to ‘sell out in seconds’. What they do give is a release time, a pre-fill function and daily caps. The Chinese guide says you can pre-fill your visit date, session and visitor details. At 17:00, open the pre-fill list and tap the reserve button. Pre-filling alone is not a booking: the successful-orders page decides. Pre-fills that did not succeed are cleared at 24:00 each day.

Daily caps differ by page and period, so don't merge them. The English Visit page (undated) says 12,000 visitors a day, adjustable for government requirements or renovation. The museum's 2026-03-10 notice set 10,000 a day from 2026-03-15 to 2026-04-30, with later changes to be announced separately. The holiday notice below sets 17,500 a day. The 2026 extended-hours and holiday notices and the English Qinhan page give no 2026 daily cap for the Qin-Han Gallery.

We'd be ready at 17:00 five days before your visit, and keep the Qin-Han Gallery as your fallback because it needs no booking.

Booking limits per ID and per WeChat account

• Up to 5 visitors per reservation. Each ID number can reserve only 1 ticket per day.
• Up to 4 bookings per ID within 30 days, and the English page says this includes cancelled ones.
• Chinese page only: one ID number can appear in at most 3 pre-fill lists per day, and one WeChat account can book 3 orders successfully per 7 days.

What to bring at the gate

The ticket is valid for that day and one entry. Bring the original of the ID you booked with, plus the successful order. You queue in your booked slot, and staff compare your face with the ID. No booking, a mismatched ID or the wrong time slot means no entry. The English Visit page adds that late arrivals are not admitted.

If you forgot the original, the Chinese page sends visitors to a service window at the south gate for an entry voucher, but it words this for people with an electronic ID card or a police-station certificate. It doesn't say what a foreign visitor without the passport can do. Carry the passport you booked with.

Arriving inside your slot is enough. A 2026-07-02 notice says entry is strictly by booked slot and there is no need to come early and queue in the heat.

Children, seniors and other visitors who can skip booking

• Children. The Chinese page says children aged 6 or under (including 6) or 1.4 m or under (including 1.4 m) need no reservation of their own. The English Visit page says "under 1.4 meters or aged under 6". Both say they go in with an adult who has reserved, and each adult may bring up to two. The English reservation page adds that children aged 14 or below cannot reserve alone: they are registered with an adult and enter with that adult.
• Seniors 65 and over. The Chinese page says they need no reservation and can swipe their ID card at the gate. The English Visit page says they can enter without reservation by presenting their original valid ID, and its notice says only the 65-and-over group can enter directly by swiping the ID or documents at the checkpoint. Neither page says whether a passport counts. Bring your passport, and if you are unsure, book anyway.
• Other groups. The pages list people with disabilities, and several Chinese military and rescue-service groups, who use a service counter to get an admission pass. These are worded around Chinese documents.

Qin-Han Gallery (秦汉馆): no booking, passport accepted

The Qin-Han Gallery is free. The English Qinhan page says individual visitors enter with a valid ID or ID document and no prior reservation, and lists the passport. Invalid ID means denied entry. The Chinese guide page says to bring the original valid ID; non-mainland visitors can use a passport, which staff verify on site. Children aged 6 or under, or 1.4 m or under, need no ID original and can be taken in by an adult, at most two per adult.

The address is East Lanchi 3-Lu, Xixian New Area (西咸新区秦汉新城兰池三路东段). The guide says it is 666 m from Qingong station (秦宫站) on Xi'an Metro Line 14. The visitor service center is at the East Tower (Que Lou) of the South Plaza.

Opening hours and closing days in 2026

From 2026-05-06 to 2026-11-14 the main building is open 08:30-19:00 with last check-in at 18:00. The Qin-Han Gallery is open 08:30-18:00 with last entry at 17:00.

The museum's 2026-03-10 notice cancels the closing day from 2026-03-15 to 2026-11-14: the main building is open every Monday and the Qin-Han Gallery every Tuesday.

The holiday notice is dated 2026-09-20, and the holiday window ends on 2026-10-07. Besides the permanent displays, it lists the paid Tang Dynasty Mural Treasures exhibition and the paid special exhibition "Civilization Stops Here: Golden Art of the Hellenistic Period".

After 2026-11-14: as of 2026-10-05 the museum's announcement list shows no winter 2026-27 notice, so winter hours and closing days are not yet announced. The museum's 2024-11-14 notice set 09:00-17:30 with last entry 16:00 and a Monday closing day except on national statutory holidays for 2024-11-15 to 2025-03-14. Treat that only as an example of what the museum did, not as this year's plan.

How to cancel, and what happens if you miss your slot

Cancel in the official WeChat account: Ticket Reservation, then Cancel Reservation. The pages word the penalty differently, so follow the stricter one:

• The Chinese guide page says to cancel before check-in stops for your booked slot. Otherwise it counts as a no-show, and you can't book for 180 calendar days from that date.
• The English reservation page says to cancel before the last entry on the day of the visit (18:00 for the main building) and gives the same 180-day ban after one no-show.
• The English Visit page says 2 or more no-shows in a calendar year trigger a ban of 180 days from the blacklisting date.

If you won't go, cancel before your slot's check-in ends. For paid special exhibitions, the Chinese guide page says refund rules are on the purchase page. The Chinese guide page and the English reservation and Visit pages don't say whether cancelled slots go back on sale.

Tang Dynasty Mural Treasures Hall: how to buy and how much

The Tang Dynasty Mural Treasures Hall (唐代壁画珍品馆) is a paid exhibition on level B1 of the East Exhibition Hall, with its own ticket. The Chinese guide says it and the Hellenistic gold special exhibition use real-name tickets, bought online in advance or at the museum. If you buy these online, you don't also need to reserve the free main-building ticket. For the Tang mural hall, the ticket office is on the 1st floor of the East Hall. The ticket also covers the exhibition on the Han Xiu tomb murals in the West Hall B1 (壁上丹青 盛唐气象).

The Chinese guide page and the museum's 2026 holiday notice give no 2026 price for the Tang mural hall. A notice dated 2024-06-28 listed 270 yuan for adults and 130 yuan for students, with 150 and 75 yuan from 2024-07-01 to 2024-10-31 and the original prices back from 2024-11-01. That is two years old, so confirm the price on the booking page before you plan around it. The Chinese guide page and the 2026 holiday notice give no price for the Hellenistic exhibition.

How to get to the Shaanxi History Museum

The main building is at No. 91 Xiaozhai Donglu, Yanta District, Xi'an (陕西历史博物馆, 雁塔区小寨东路91号). It is 778 m from Xiaozhai station (Lines 2 and 3) and 834 m from Big Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayanta) station (Lines 3 and 4). Buses 5, 19, 24, 26, 27, 30, 34, 271, 400, 401, 521, 527 and 254 stop there, at the station named Shaanxi History Museum.

Qingong, the station near the Qin-Han Gallery, is on Line 14 only. Line 14 also stops at Xi'an North Railway Station and the airport. These are the fares returned by the Xi'an Metro fare query on 2026-10-05:

The table has no fare for Airport (T5) to Qingong. For train arrivals, see Xi'an railway stations. If you are also visiting the Terracotta Army, see Terracotta Army tickets. For the wider trip, read our Xi'an travel guide. We can help you plan the Xi'an days and tell you how to book, but you reserve the museum's tickets yourself in its own account.