National Museum of China

The National Museum of China is an absolute MUST for any Beijing itinerary. Be aware: **you MUST book tickets online in advance** (book as early as possible!). To truly appreciate the sheer scale and priceless treasures inside, **arrive as early as possible when it opens**. You'll avoid the massive crowds and have a much more peaceful, enjoyable experience exploring China's most significant cultural relics, spanning thousands of years. Highly recommended for visitors from all over the world!

A pretty big museum show casing much of Chinese ancient and recent history. However I felt that it was a little lackluster in terms of interesting things. Good news is once you exit here you can check out the tiananmen plaza so you don’t need to come a second time to visit the plaza.

If you like history, this is probably one of the best museums to visit in Beijing. The admission is free but you have to reserve tickets through a mini app on WeChat. It could be difficult to get tickets. They release new tickets every day at 5 pm. The best one was the Ancient China exhibition, but the line could also get extremely long. You’d better visit it either in the morning or late before their closing time. There were also plenty of temporary exhibitions. You could expect to spend at least 3 hours here.

Place itself was huge and showed a great deal of China’s history. Spent 2h-3h there but still didn’t complete. Had fun with stamps. We had booked tickets two days ago for the 11am slot but I highly recommend going for an earlier one. Somehow the didi driver dropped us a road away from the museum at 10.55am, and we were turned away from 2 other entrances? By the time we entered, it was 11.40am. Insane. It’s better if you head to other places instead. If you want to go, make sure to bring loads of food. Can try public transport.

Before planing my visit, a friend warned me this spot is popular with tourists, so I came with my low expectation… and honestly, it still felt overwhelming. The moment I got off the train, it was chaos—long queues, security checks (three times, from train to the entrance), and some seriously impatient staff. Not the chill experience I hoped for. 🤯 If you’re planning to come, pack your patience and maybe a podcast for the wait. 🤞🏻Good luck!

Amazing museum. They even had a robot dog to carry people heavy items that needed to be checked. Very cool up close. What a history the main Hall with paintings were very moving.

Enormous museum with more than just the culture an history of China. For most foreigners the basement is the most interesting floor to visit which displays the history from 20.000 years ago till recent.

To access the museum, you need to make reservation via their website or WeChat mini app first at least 7 days in advance and admission is free. The museum is quite huge and separated into 2 wings and many floors. You should check out the floor plan first and decide which part you would be interested in. The most popular section seems to be the Ancient China which you have to queue to get in. There are both temporary and permanent exhibitions with lots of invaluable items and historical content to check out (with some English explanation). After your visit, you can proceed to other nearby attractions in the same area.