Shaanxi History Museum
The provincial museum that explains why Xi'an was the capital for a thousand years (Zhou bronzes, Qin and Han, and the Tang galleries with the Hejiacun gold-and-silver hoard), in a 1991 Tang-style building on Xiaozhai East Road. Admission is free but ticketed, and it is the hardest free ticket in the city: released on the museum's WeChat official account at 17:00 five days ahead, one ticket per ID per day, capped at 10,000 a day during the current refurbishment. Passports are accepted for booking; the way round the scramble is the paid Tang murals gallery or special exhibition, since that ticket lets you into the main museum without a free-ticket booking (official rule).
Only the WeChat official account 陕西历史博物馆: tickets released 17:00, five days ahead, timed slots; pre-fill visitor details, then tap 预约 at 17:00. No third-party sellers authorised. Info lines 029-85253806 / 4000293806. Cancel before your slot's last-entry time or it is a no-show — no-show = 180-day banVerified · 2026-09Source ↗
Real-name entry; passports are accepted. Passport accepted for booking and entry (listed as a valid document); bring the original — person, document and booking are checked at the gate. The no-booking lanes (65+, servicemen, disabled) work by swiping a Chinese ID card, so foreign seniors must book like everyone else. See the city tips note on concessions.
WeChat → follow 陕西历史博物馆 → ticket booking → pre-fill date, slot and each visitor's name and passport number → at 17:00 five days before, open 预填信息查询 and tap 预约 → check 成功订单查询 (a pre-fill alone is not a booking).
If the free slots are gone, buy the Tang murals gallery or special-exhibition ticket online — the museum says those buyers need not book the free ticket. Or go to the Qin-Han branch (Xixian New Area, 8:30-18:00, entry ends 17:00), where the museum writes that non-mainland visitors enter without booking on a passport after an on-the-spot check.
Volunteer guiding is free (official service page); paid 'premium' tours by the museum's tariff of 22 June 2026: main galleries 90 min ¥300 in Chinese / ¥600 in English, Hejiacun hoard 40 min ¥100 / ¥200, murals gallery 60 min ¥150 / ¥300, groups of up to 10 — English costs double (the Qin-Han branch tariff says the same: foreign-language at twice the rate). Labels in the main galleries are bilingual.
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Answers you'll need here
- Can I use a foreign passport when a sight requires “real-name booking”?Depends · Most big sites accept a passport through official channels. Some make you swap at a window; some only mention ID cards.