Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), Beijing

Old Summer Palace tickets: entry or through ticket?

Buy the ¥25 through ticket. Basic entry is ¥10 and covers the lakes, hills and southern gardens, but not the fenced Western Mansions area — the carved stone ruins everyone comes to photograph. The through ticket adds those ruins (the Great Fountain, Haiyantang and the maze) plus the model exhibition. Separately they’re ¥15 and ¥10, so the combo saves money too.

Prices are the same all year. Concessions are ¥5 and ¥10 for full-time students up to bachelor level — foreign student cards don’t count. Park rules give free entry to under-18s and over-60s with valid ID; guides say a passport works for foreign visitors, but we haven’t seen that in an official notice. Entry is also free on the second Saturday of June, the third Saturday of September and 18 October.

You don’t need to book. There are ticket windows at the South Gate, the East Gate and two other gates; online tickets are sold through the park’s official WeChat mini-program and its official account, 圆明园遗址公园. Carry your passport — guides say foreign visitors may be asked for it at the gate.

Payment is the usual China catch. Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with a foreign Visa or Mastercard before you fly; if the mini-program rejects your card, agents such as Trip.com sell tickets, or simply pay at the window. Keep some small yuan notes for boats and drinks.

Old Summer Palace opening hours

The park is open every day; there’s no Monday closing. From 1 November to 31 March, ticket sales and entry run 7:00–17:30 and the park closes at 19:30, according to the official website. Local media say the gates open at 6:30 in winter, but you can’t buy a ticket before 7:00.

From 1 April to 31 October the gates open at 6:00, sales start at 7:00, last entry is 19:00 and the park closes at 21:00. The Western Mansions ruins follow the same hours; the model exhibition closes at 19:00 in summer. These summer times come from local media and guides rather than an official notice, so treat them as a guide.

Go on a weekday morning. The Great Fountain is quiet before the tour groups, and in July the lotus ponds look best before the heat. In winter the ruins look striking under snow, but it gets dark early — reach the Western Mansions by 16:00.

What happened to the Old Summer Palace?

Yuanmingyuan — the “Gardens of Perfect Brightness” — was the Qing emperors’ main residence outside the city. Building began in 1707, when the Kangxi Emperor gave the garden to his son, the future Yongzheng Emperor. Successive emperors expanded it for more than 150 years into three linked gardens covering about 350 hectares, where the court lived for much of the year and state business was done.

In October 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces occupied and looted the gardens. On 18 October the British envoy Lord Elgin ordered the buildings burned. The palace was never rebuilt; what survived was further damaged and stripped over the following decades.

The site opened as a heritage park in 1988. The ruins are kept as they are, deliberately, and 18 October is a memorial day with free entry. Almost everything you see now is stone: the timber halls and pavilions that made up most of the gardens are gone.

What to see at the Old Summer Palace

• The Great Fountain (Dashuifa, 大水法) — the most photographed ruin: a carved stone shell arch and toppled columns at the edge of a former pool. In the Western Mansions area.
• Haiyantang (海晏堂) — foundations and carved fragments of the largest European-style palace, whose water clock had twelve bronze zodiac heads spouting in turn.
• The maze (Huanghuazhen, 黄花阵) — a rebuilt maze of low walls with a pavilion at the centre. Kids happily spend longer here than at the ruins.
• Yuanyingguan (远瀛观) — the remains of a hall on a terrace above the Great Fountain, with a view over the whole Western Mansions area.
• The model exhibition (盛时全景模型展) — a large scale model of the gardens at their height. See it first: the empty lawns make sense afterwards.
• Fuhai Lake (福海) — the biggest lake, with islands; in the warm months guides mention pedal and electric boats.
• Lotus ponds — in summer the lakes fill with lotus, one of the best places in Beijing to see it.

Is the Old Summer Palace worth it, and how long do you need?

Allow two to two and a half hours for the Western Mansions ruins, the maze and the model, including the walk from the gate. Add Fuhai Lake and the southern gardens and it becomes a half day — distances inside are in kilometres, not metres.

It’s worth it if you like history or are already heading to the Summer Palace: the two are about 3.6 km apart on the same metro line, and together they make a good day in the north-west. It is calmer than the Forbidden City and one of the cheapest imperial sites in Beijing.

Skip it on a one- or two-day trip. These are ruins, not a palace: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace are more complete and more impressive. Don’t expect restored interiors — Yuanmingyuan is kept as a ruin on purpose, as a memorial to 1860.

Old Summer Palace vs Summer Palace and Beihai

The Summer Palace is the complete palace park — see it first. The Old Summer Palace is the add-on for history fans, two stops down the same line. If you can’t make the trip north-west, Beihai gives you a lake and an imperial garden in the centre.

Beijing’s history sights compared

Historic places in Beijing rated by YesGo. Tap a column header to sort.

How to do it right

• Get the through ticket straight away — basic entry doesn’t let you into the Western Mansions ruins.
• See the model exhibition before the ruins; it shows what stood on the empty lawns.
• Short cut: taxi to the East Gate, see the ruins, then walk through the park to the South Gate and the metro.
• In summer, come early: the lotus ponds are cooler and the Great Fountain is empty.
• Google Maps is blocked in China without roaming or a VPN — save an offline map and 圆明园 before you go.
• Pair it with the Summer Palace, two stops north on Line 4 at Beigongmen.
• Cafés are few and far apart inside — carry water and a snack.

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