China · MUSEUMS
23 reviewed
Short version, for anyone planning a week rather than a month: the 15 museum visits below are the ones to put in the calendar, each with its price, its rating and the single detail that decides it.
Reserved entry to the Forbidden City with Tiananmen Square context. English or Spanish guided tours, Royal Treasures Museum, easy meeting point.
“The meeting point could be closer to the entrance, because it's a lot of walking inside the palace anyway.”
Half-day small-group Xi’an tour to the Terracotta Warriors with hotel pickup, lunch, museum tickets, and an English-speaking guide.
“Well organized, with real info about the site. Efficient, and the guide was incredible with a perfect English! I also liked the timing. I highly recommend!”
Jingshan Park ticket in central Beijing for Forbidden City views, imperial pavilions, peaceful gardens, and evening light show options.
“We booked same day and got the tickets very quickly. The park was beautiful!”
Private Chengdu day tour for giant pandas, Kuan-Zhai Alley, and Jinsha Site Museum, with hotel pickup and tickets included.
“Maggie is an exceptional guide who always wears a smile. She provided us with a wealth of background information not only about the attractions we visited but also about Chinese culture and traditions. Maggie also encouraged us to try locRead more”
Private Xi'an day to Terracotta Warriors, Hanyangling tomb, and Yaodong cave homes with pickup and lunch, $175 per person.
“A really excellent tour that covers a lot of history. Michael was a charming and efficient guide with a wealth of knowledge which he clearly loved imparting. The visit to the cave dwelling is quite short but very touching as a glimpse of a way of liRead more”
Small-group Xi'an Terracotta Army tour with hotel pickup, reserved skip-the-line tickets, guided visit, optional local lunch, and add-on show.
“The museum is an amazing experience. We arranged travel from Beijing ourselves, and it wasn’t that difficult to be honest. We hired a guide at the museum, which I’d recommend as there’s a lot to take in.”
Half-day guided tour of the National Museum of China with hotel pickup, subway transfer, and timed access to key relics and exhibits.
“The museum is very large and, on the day of our tour, extremely crowded. It would be possible to spend days at the museum seeing different exhibitions. Our tour with Mike fun, informative and in every respect excellent. We concentrated Read more”
Skip the lines at Xi'an’s Terracotta Warriors Museum with an English guide, tour Pits 1 to 3, and see the bronze chariots.
“We had a great tour of the terra-cotta warriors. The tour company was responsive, we were able to contact the tour guide via WeChat prior to the tour. Wangkai did a great job with overview of the history and described the pits in detail. Read more”
Private day tour in Xi’an with early entry to the Terracotta Army and a flexible afternoon from top Xi’an sites, with pickup and guide.
“Highly recommended private tour and Stephanie is awesome. She is local to Xi’an and has so much knowledge about the area and about the history. Stephanie was able to get us front row access to see the terracotta warriors. She customRead more”
Small-group Terracotta Warriors tour from Xi'an with hotel pickup, museum tickets, lunch, and optional Muslim Quarter sights.
“The Terracotta Army experience would be difficult without a tour. Public transport and ticket purchase would be hard. Take the tour, it is well worth it!”
One long Xi’an day covering the Shaanxi History Museum, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, ancient City Wall, and the Great Mosque with guide and lunch.
“I was the only one on this tour, so we went everywhere, it was a very hot day so we took lots of breaks, worth doing, learning about the history of the city”
See the Forbidden City with Treasure Gallery and Clock Hall, then visit Badaling Great Wall ruins, plus a Peking duck banquet lunch.
“Dream come true. Our tour guide was fun and always wanting to help take our picture. The forbidden city was very impressive. Our guide was quite knowledgable. The Great wall was amazing. I feel so blessed to have seen it. What an amazing trip!!”
See Lama Temple’s massive sandalwood Buddha, Confucius and Guozijian learning sites, then relax in hutong alleys on a guided 4-hour loop.
“Very good tour guide. Aurora has been explained every detail in a understandable and easy way and the tour became more interesting.”
Prebook entry to China National Museum and Tiananmen Square in Beijing, using a passport-linked QR code and strict time slots.
“First about the booking process -> flawless as always with Viator, our QR codes for the museum entrance (incl. Tiananmen) were delivered on time before our visit and there have been no problems at all with gaining entrance to both Tiananmen and then the museum. They didn't even check the QR code as our tickets were linked with our passports and a passport scan was sufficient - very convenient and efficient (a procedure common with many sights). That it has been possible at all to acquire 2 tickets for a visit during the golden week is outstanding and I am thankful for that (appart from another two foreigners we saw…”
Private Beijing half-day tour of Lama Temple and Confucius Temple, plus Guozijian museum and dim sum with an English guide.
“We were not informed that the hotel pick up was one way only and in fact, we were made to travel to the temple via train as the tour guide told us that’s the way to avoid the jam. The guide could have given us more information on the places of interest.”
