Great Mosque of Xi’an

Great Mosque of Xi’an tickets and opening hours

Non-Muslim visitors pay ¥25 from March to November and ¥15 from December to February; Muslims get in free. TravelChinaGuide, China Travel, Chinatripedia and the Shaanxi government's tourism listing all agree on these prices. Children under 1.2 m are free, and Chinatripedia notes there's no senior discount. Student prices vary by source (¥12 or ¥15).

The mosque opens daily at 8:00, but closing times differ. TravelChinaGuide and the Shaanxi listing say 19:00, sometimes 20:00 in summer; China For Travelers says 20:00 with last entry at 19:00; Trip.com and Wikivoyage give 18:40. Winter closing is around 18:00. We couldn't open an official timetable, so treat all of this as unofficial and aim to arrive by 17:30.

Buy your ticket at the window beside the gate — there's nothing to book in advance. Bring small yuan notes: cash is legal tender everywhere, and Alipay or WeChat Pay with a linked Visa or Mastercard covers most other payments in China. We couldn't confirm which methods the ticket window itself accepts, so cash is the safe bet.

Is the Great Mosque of Xi’an worth visiting?

Yes, if you're already in the old centre. It's one of China's oldest and best-known mosques, five minutes from the Drum Tower, cheap to enter, and unlike anything else in Xi’an: an Islamic place of worship built entirely in Chinese temple style, with timber halls, carved archways, stone steles and a pagoda instead of a minaret. Arabic inscriptions sit beside Chinese calligraphy.

It's also a calm escape. A few steps from the crowds on the food streets, the courtyards are shaded by old trees and surprisingly quiet. Most people need 45–60 minutes; calligraphy fans and photographers may want 90.

Skip it if you have a single day in Xi’an and the Terracotta Army comes first — or if you've seen the old mosques of Beijing and are short of time. And don't go at Friday midday: you'll mostly see closed doors and the backs of worshippers.

What to see: the four courtyards

• First courtyard — just inside the east entrance: a garden and a 9 m wooden archway (paifang) roofed in glazed tiles.
• Second courtyard — a stone arch and two steles. Their calligraphy is traditionally credited to the masters Mi Fu and Dong Qichang, though that's legend rather than proven fact.
• Third courtyard — the Shengxin Tower (省心楼, “Tower for Examining the Heart”), a three-storey octagonal timber pavilion that serves as the minaret, ringed by old steles, some in Arabic.
• Phoenix Pavilion (凤凰亭) in the fourth courtyard — a hexagonal gazebo with upswept eaves on the way to the prayer hall.
• Prayer hall at the far end — under a blue-green tiled roof on a raised terrace, holding around a thousand worshippers. Non-Muslims look in from the terrace but don't enter.
• Gardens between the courtyards — trees, flower beds and benches; for many visitors the quiet is the highlight.

A short history

Tradition dates the mosque to 742, when Xi’an — then Chang’an — was the Tang capital and the eastern end of the Silk Road, home to merchants from Persia and Arabia. Nothing of the Tang buildings survives, so 742 is tradition rather than the date of anything you'll see.

According to English Wikipedia, the Yuan rebuilt it around the 1260s, and its present form is largely Ming: according to the Records of Xi’an Municipality, the main buildings went up in 1392 under the Hongwu Emperor, with Qing additions later. It has been reconstructed at least four times. It became a Shaanxi provincial heritage site in 1956 and a national one in 1988.

It still serves the local Hui community, Chinese-speaking Muslims who have lived in this quarter for centuries — which is why it's called the Great Mosque rather than a museum.

Xi’an's places of worship compared

Mosques, temples and pagodas in Xi’an rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

Nearby — add to your day

42

Muslim Quarter

Xi’an, China

1 h 30 min · Free, open 24 hours · 4 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Muslim Quarter

39

Bell and Drum Towers

Xi’an, China

1 h · ¥30 per tower, ¥50 for both · 10 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Bell and Drum Towers

35

Xi’an City Wall

Xi’an, China

2 h · ¥54, bike ¥45 / 3 hours · 21 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Xi’an City Wall

How to do it right

• Avoid Friday around midday — that's congregational prayer.
• From the Drum Tower, turn left into Huajue Lane rather than walking straight up the food street.
• Carry ¥25 in small notes: the ticket window is at the gate, no booking needed.
• Cover shoulders and knees, and keep a light scarf in your bag.
• Look at the prayer hall from the terrace — non-Muslims don't go inside.
• Haggle in Huajue Lane: souvenir prices in the stalls aren't fixed.
• Afterwards, eat in the Muslim Quarter and catch sunset on the city wall.

Questions