Beijing Zoo
China's oldest zoo (opened in 1906 as the Qing court's agricultural experiment station and menagerie on the site of a prince's garden outside Xizhimen) and its largest urban one at 86 hectares, with the giant pandas most visitors come for, a good primate house, and late-Qing garden buildings among the enclosures. It is the cheapest big-name ticket in Beijing: ¥15 in season, ¥19 with the panda house, open from 7:30, gates on Xizhimen Outer Street two minutes from Line 4 Dongwuyuan station, and, across the canal at the north gate, the Five-Pagoda Temple. A municipal park, so the open question of passports on its online real-name ticketing applies, but the tourism-bureau page lists foreign students among the concessions and the gates sell tickets.
Gate windows; municipal '畅游公园' platform online (the Zoo was one of its three 2017 pilot parks) — real-name online booking widely reported, not stated as compulsory on the bureau pageVerified · 2026-09Source ↗
No ID rule for standard entry; concessions require proof. Not published for gate tickets; concessions on ID — foreign students half price with a valid card (tourism-bureau page) — see the city tips note on concessions.
Weekends and school holidays are family crowds from 9:00; the panda house queue is worst 10:00-14:00. Gates open 7:30 — the first hour is the zoo at its best, and the pandas are fed and active early. Winter weekdays are near-empty.
Bilingual signs on the main houses; keeper talks are Chinese. Enquiries 010-68390274 (tourism-bureau page).
How to visit
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