Top 10 Unmissable Best Museums in Beijing 2024/2025

Top 3 Most Important Museums in Beijing

Among all the 10 museums, the Palace Museum, and National Museum of China, and Beijing Capital Museum are the best of the best, for their large scale, numerous exhibits, fancy collections, various categories, and convenient locations. Especially the Palace Museum (Forbidden City), if you come to visit Beijing, it is definitely a super museum that you should not miss out!

4 Days Classic Beijing Tour Package (Leisure Paced)

Itinerary: Beijing
Highlights: Forbidden City, Mutianyu Great Wall, Summer Palace, Local Family Visit

Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

The Palace museum used to be the imperial palace of the royal families of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China. It was built in 1420. Located in the center of Beijing's central axis, it covers an area of 112 hectares and a construction area of about 22 hectares, with more than 70 large and small palaces and nearly 10,000 rooms. It is one of the largest and most complete ancient wooden structures in the world. It was listed as a world cultural heritage in 1987. Beijing Palace Museum contains a large number of precious cultural relics. According to statistics, there are about 1.86 million pieces, covering 25 categories, including paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, gold and silverware, jade, ceramics, furniture and other categories, of which precious treasures account for 90% of the total collection, that is, there are more than 8,000 first-class collections. >> Learn More about Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

☛ Forbidden City Tours | Beijing Tours including Forbidden City

• Chinese: 故宫博物院（紫禁城）• Pinyin: gù gōng bó wù yuàn (zǐ jìn chéng）
• Opening Hours: Apr – Oct: 8:30 - 17:00 / Nov – Mar: 8:30 - 16:30 / Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Apr to Oct: CNY 60 / Nov to Mar: CNY 40
• Address: #4 Jingshan Qianjie, Dongcheng District, Beijing 北京市东城区景山前街4号

National Museum of China

The total building area of the National Museum of China is nearly 200,000 square meters, with more than 1 million collections and 48 exhibition halls. It is the third largest museum in the world, presenting one of the richest collections of Chinese cultural relics. Its overall scale ranks first in the world's museums and is one of the most popular museums for tourists in the world. Besides the most treasured Ancient China exhibits including jades, sculptures, porcelains, coins, bronzes, here you can also find the state gifts from other countries and African collections. >> Learn More about National Museum of China

☛ 5 Days Beijing In-depth Exploration Tour of History and Hidden Treasures

• Chinese: 中国国家博物馆 • Pinyin: zhōng guó guó jiā bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 9:00 - 17:30; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Free
• Address: #16 East Chang'an Avenue, Dongcheng District, Beijing 北京市东城区东长安街16号

Beijing Capital Museum

The original site of Beijing Capital Museum is a "Confucius Temple". The museum, which integrates collection, exhibition, research, archaeology, public education and cultural exchange, is a large museum in Beijing. The total building area of the Capital Museum is 63,390 square meters. The number of permanent exhibits is 5,622. The permanent exhibitions include cultural relics from an ancient Buddhist pagodas in Beijing, Ancient Porcelain Exhibition, Ancient Buddha Sculpture Exhibition, Ancient Jade Exhibition, Ancient Bronze Exhibition.

• Chinese: 首都博物馆 • Pinyin: shǒu dū bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 09:00 - 17:00; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Free
• Address: #16 Fuxingmen Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 北京市西城区复兴门外大街16号

Top 7 Themed Museums in Beijing

Besides the top 3 comprehensive public museums, there are other incredible themed museums for you to visit, including Beijing Opera Museum, Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture, The Great Wall of China Museum, National Art Museum of China, Paleozoological Museum of China, and Beijing Folklore Museum, etc. If you are a museum lovers, they are all nice and interesting spots for you to explore deeper about Chinese culture.

3 Days Beijing Essential Highlights Tour

Itinerary: Beijing
Highlights: Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Mutianyu Great Wall, Hutong, Bird's Nest, Water Cube

National Art Museum of China

It collects more than 100,000 works of various kinds, mainly from the period before and after the founding of P.R. China. It also has masterpieces of artists from the late Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The collections are mainly modern fine art, representative work of famous contemporary Chinese artists and award-winning work of major art exhibitions, as well as folk art work. Among them, there are numerous works on Beijing folk customs, which fully reflect the old Beijing culture. Besides Chinese art works, there are also lots of African and western fine art works, including 4 Paintings from Picasso.

• Chinese: 中国美术馆 • Pinyin: zhōng guó měi shù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 9:00 - 17:00; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Free
• Address: #1 Wusi Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 北京市东城区五四大街1号

The Treasure Gallery of the Palace Museum (in Forbidden City)

The Treasure Gallery of the Palace Museum started to open the public in 1958. It is one of the most important perennial exhibition halls of the Palace Museum. It mainly consists of exhibitions of cultural relics of the Qing Dynasty, such as calligraphy and painting, ceramics, bronze and curios, as well as other imperial treasures. The Treasure Gallery is located in the east of Beijing Palace Museum. It is a treasure house with all kinds of precious gems, gold wares and silver utensils, Pearl, jadeite, silk, crowns, Ivory carvings, all kinds of treasures are unparalleled in the world; the most prominent one is a tower, weighing up to 5,000 kilograms of large jade carvings. The New Museum covers an area of about 220 square meters and exhibits more than 440 cultural relics. >> Learn More about the Treasure Gallery of Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

☛ 1 Day Efficient Beijing Tour including Forbidden City

• Chinese: 故宫珍宝馆 • Pinyin: gù gōng zhēn bǎo guǎn
• Opening Hours: 8:30 - 17:00 (Apr - Oct); 8:30 - 16:30 (Nov - Mar); Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: CNY 10
• Address: Ningshou Palace, Palace Museum, #4 Jingshan Qianjie, Dongcheng District, Beijing 北京市东城区景山前街4号故宫博物院宁寿宫内

Beijing Opera Museum

This is the 100th museum built and opened in Beijing. Founded in 1807, it was once a tea house. At the same time, it has a fine cultural tradition of Peking Opera. Now the Beijing Opera Museum has become a cultural exchange site where you can watch Beijing Opera performance. Every evening in the elegant and quiet ancient theatre, there are excellent performances of Peking Opera. On weekends, there are performances by famous Beijing and Kunming opera masters. Every Sunday morning, there are classic Peking Opera performances. The main part of the exhibition is "A Brief Exhibition of the History of Beijing Opera". With detailed and precious opera documents, cultural relics, pictures and audio-visual materials, it shows the audience the development and history of Beijing Opera.

• Chinese: 北京戏曲博物馆 • Pinyin: běi jīng xì qǔ bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 09:00 - 16:30; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Free (you may need purchase tickets for the performance)
• Address: #3-1 Hufang Road, Beijing 北京市虎坊路3-1号

Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture

Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture has scaled down "Temple of Heaven", as well as other ancient Chinese palace and folk architecture, with many interesting miniature landscapes. Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum is located in Beijing Xiannongtan. It is tranquil and far away bustling downtown area. The ancient cypress is towering in the sky and the trees are leafy and shady in the garden area. It is the first thematic museum in China that collects, studies and displays ancient Chinese architectural miniatures, art, its development and history.

• Chinese: 北京古代建筑博物馆 • Pinyin: běi jīng gǔ dài jiàn zhù bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 9:00 - 17:00; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: CNY 15
• Address: #21 Dongjing Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 北京市西城区东经路21号

The Great Wall of China Museum

The Great Wall of China Museum is located in Badaling Great Wall Scenic Area. It is a special museum with the Great Wall as its theme. The building area of this museum is more than 4000 square meters. It shows the function and development of the Great Wall; the military defense system of the Great Wall in the ancient time; the major battles that happened around the Great Wall in history; the exhibition focuses on the cultural relics and presents unearthed relics along the Great Wall. By using models, projectors, touchable screens and other multimedia, you can have a better understanding of the Great Wall of China beyond just stones and bricks.

• Chinese: 中国长城博物馆 • Pinyin: zhōng guó cháng chéng bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 9:00 - 17:00; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: Free
• Address: Badaling Great Wall, Badaling Town, Yanqing District, Beijing 北京市延庆区八达岭镇八达岭长城内

Paleozoological Museum of China

The museum exhibits specimens and models of prehistoric fossils and Paleolithic implements frommore than 500 million years ago to 10,000 years ago, showing the natural remains of prehistoric animals and ancient humans and their evolution. It is the largest museum of ancient animals in Asia. Among the precious exhibits on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China are ancient Fish from African, the largest dinosaur fossils in Asia, the first dinosaur found in China, the skeleton of the ancient Elephant,,and the mysterious replication of the skull of Peking Ape Man, etc.

• Chinese: 中国古动物馆 • Pinyin: zhōng guó gǔ dòng wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 9:00 - 16:30; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: CNY 20
• Address: #142 Xizhimen Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 北京市西城区西直门外大街142号

Beijing Folklore Museum

The Beijing Folklore Museum is located in Dongyue Temple on the bustling Chaowai Street. It used to be a Taoist temple. Now it is the only Folklore Museum in Beijing. It covers an area of 60,000 square meters with 376 ancient buildings. It holds folk exhibitions with interesting folk activities almost all the year round, especially during the traditional festivals, like the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang and other Chinese festivals.

• Chinese: 北京民俗博物馆 • Pinyin: běi jīng mín sú bó wù guǎn
• Opening Hours: 8:30 - 16:30; Closed on Mondays
• Ticket: CNY 10
• Address: #141 Chaoyangmen Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 北京市朝阳区朝阳门外大街141号