Do I need to book Terracotta Army tickets in advance?
Yes. The Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum (秦始皇帝陵博物院, the Terracotta Army's official name) sells tickets by real-name online reservation only. The rule covers every visitor: foreigners, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan visitors, and anyone with a free ticket.
The museum caps entry at 65,000 visitors a day, and sales stop when the cap is reached. At busy times it raises the cap: it reported 70,000 for summer 2026 and 75,000 over May Day 2026.
How many days ahead do tickets go on sale? The museum's website doesn't say. We couldn't check the booking calendar ourselves. The only release times we found were for May Day 2023: 10:00, 15:00 and 20:00 daily. Open the booking calendar for your dates and, if they aren't listed yet, check again over the next few days.
How to book Terracotta Army tickets with a foreign passport
The museum accepts a passport for booking. In November 2025 the Shaanxi cultural heritage administration said its key museums, this one included, let passport holders book through official WeChat accounts, official websites and some travel apps, then scan the passport at the gate.
- Pick a channel. The museum's visitor page lists its ticketing website (the 购票 button at bmy.com.cn, which takes an ID card or a passport) and two WeChat official accounts, 秦始皇帝陵博物院 and 兵马俑票务在线. For other languages and currencies there is the overseas platform that the museum, Ctrip Group and ICBC launched in April 2024 (24 languages and 34 currencies, the museum says). The Ticket button on the museum's English site opens a Trip.com page.
- Choose a date and a time slot. Tickets are allotted by slot. The museum lets you check in from 30 minutes before yours.
- Enter your name and passport number exactly as printed. The person, the ticket and the document have to match at the gate.
- Pay and keep the confirmation. To cancel, do it before the ticket is checked. Refunds go back to the original payment account within 3 to 5 working days, and a used ticket can't be refunded.
- On the day, bring the original passport and enter at the North Gate, the only entrance in the museum's 2023 notices. The rules ask for the original and don't mention photos.
We haven't completed a booking on these systems ourselves, so we can't describe the screens or say what the later steps ask for.
What about Trip.com, Klook and other resellers?
The museum's May 2025 holiday notice says it has never authorised any third-party platform, channel or company to sell its tickets. At the same time, its English site sends the Ticket button to a Trip.com page, and the overseas platform it launched in April 2024 was built with Ctrip Group, the company behind Trip.com, and ICBC. In November 2025 the Shaanxi cultural heritage administration said the platform combines ICBC's open payment system with Ctrip Group's traffic and sites, and that 107,100 visitors had booked Terracotta Army tickets through it. None of the official pages we read mentions Klook. If you use Trip.com, start from the Ticket button on the museum's English site, check that the booking shows your passport name, a date and a time slot, and be wary of a "fast pass" or a bundle you didn't ask for.
Terracotta Army ticket price and what's included
- Adult: ¥120, the same all year. The museum's price note cites a 2018 price-bureau letter that set one price for all seasons, and its February 2025 WeChat post repeats ¥120. We found no newer price on an official page.
- Students: ¥60 with a valid student card, for full-time students up to undergraduate level. Adult-education, in-service and online-education students don't qualify.
- Two sites, one ticket. It covers the Terracotta Warriors Museum (Pits 1, 2 and 3) and the Mausoleum Archaeological Site Park, called Lishan Garden (the bronze chariots hall and two burial pits). A free shuttle bus links them, and the museum says each takes about 1.5 hours. The ticket is valid on the day and is checked three times.
- Extras (2023 notices): the electric cart inside the Terracotta Warriors Museum costs ¥5, or you can walk 10 to 15 minutes to the second ticket gate. The Lishan Garden cart costs ¥15. Free left-luggage east of the ticket hall won't take valuables such as phones, cash and documents, or drinks and cooked food.
Terracotta Army opening hours and last entry
| Season | Check-in starts | Ticket checks stop | Site closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 March to 15 November | 8:30 | 17:00 | 18:30 |
| 16 November to 15 March | 8:30 | 16:30 | 18:00 |
The museum's hours table lists no weekly closing day. Its visitor page also says both sites stop checking tickets at 17:00 without separating the seasons, but the English ticketing page gives 16:30 for winter, so from 16 November plan to be through the gate before 16:30. The English home page still shows older season dates; ignore them.
Summer and holidays change the numbers. In its report on summer 2026 (11 July to 21 August), the museum said it raised the cap to 70,000 and extended hours: checks from 8:00 to 17:30, closing at 19:30. Over May Day 2026 it opened 7:30 to 20:00 and stopped checks at 18:00. We found no notice for the 2026 National Day holiday on its website on 1 October, so check its WeChat accounts before you go.
Terracotta Army discounts: what applies to foreign visitors
- Children. The Chinese-language rule gives free entry to children aged 16 and under only if they are Chinese citizens (中国籍). The English ticketing page adds that children who aren't mainland-Chinese nationals and are 1.4 m or under enter free with a parent, if the place is booked in advance. We found that line nowhere else, so treat it as unconfirmed and ask the ticket line (029-81399127). Add children in the booking form: the museum's WeChat post says that if the field for accompanying children doesn't appear, that slot's free places are full.
- Seniors 65 and over are free, but the notice says Chinese citizens. Plan on ¥120.
- Students. The half-price rule is worded with and without "Chinese" before "full-time students". The museum doesn't say whether a foreign student card is accepted.
- The other free categories (military, police, firefighters, disability) depend on Chinese-issued certificates.
Terracotta Army guides and audio guides
The museum's website puts its guide service at the Pit 1 information desk (029-81399047 or 029-81399048) and lists no fees. A museum notice of January 2023, reposted by the Shaanxi cultural heritage administration, gave ¥90 per tour for 1 to 5 people, ¥100 for 6 to 11 and ¥110 for 12 or more, plus ¥8 per person for a headset. Those are old figures, so confirm them. The museum doesn't say which languages its guides speak, and its website doesn't mention an audio guide.
How to get to the Terracotta Army from Xi'an
The museum is in Lintong, east of the city. No metro station serves the site: every route on the museum's directions page ends on a bus.
- Metro and bus. Take Metro Line 1 to Fangzhicheng and change to Line 9 for Huaqingchi, exit C. Walk 197 m to the Huaqingchi bus stop, then take the Lintong You 613 or Lintong 602 bus to the Terracotta Army stop (兵马俑), 170 m from the site. From Xi'an Railway Station the page says to use Line 4 to Wulukou and change to Line 1. From Xi'an North Station it says Line 2 to Beidajie, then Line 1.
- Direct bus. Metro Line 3 to Tonghuamen, exit D (northeast), then walk 310 m to the Qinfeng depot stop for the Terracotta Army scenic-area direct bus (兵马俑景区直通车). From the museum stop it is a 174 m walk. The museum gives no fare or timetable for this bus, so check them with the operator.
Other guides mention a tourist bus (Tourist Line 5 or 306). The museum's directions don't list it, so we left it out.
Can I buy Terracotta Army tickets at the gate?
Not as a rule: the museum's ticketing rules say all visitors must reserve online first. Its newer pages do describe on-site options. In November 2025 the Shaanxi cultural heritage administration said the overseas platform includes offline purchase, that the visitor centre has a staffed foreign-currency service centre run by ICBC and ABC (mobile-payment help, cash withdrawals on foreign cards, currency exchange), and that ABC's self-service machines now work in several languages so foreign visitors can buy tickets by card. The museum's 20 December 2025 report says the platform added staffed windows and a foreign-currency service centre, and on 1 October 2026 it announced a ticket and payment service centre with bilingual ticket notices, saying it makes buying tickets on site much easier. None of these pages says how many tickets are kept for on-site sale or what happens once the daily cap is reached, so book online first and treat the machines and windows as a backup.
For where to stay and what else to do in Xi'an, see our Xi'an travel guide.
