Summer Palace Beijing: Skip-the-Line Tickets & Kunming Lake

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Free cancellation

1/10

Duration3h–4h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

The Long Corridor holds 8,000 painted scenes—and you walk through all of them

You skip the entry queue with a mobile QR code ticket and spend your time actually exploring: walking the world's longest painted gallery, crossing the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, taking a boat on Kunming Lake, and climbing the Tower of Buddhist Incense for panoramic views. The combo ticket unlocks Suzhou Street and the Garden of Virtue and Harmony if you want a deeper dive. Tickets arrive digitally and scan straight at the gate.

3h–4h

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Summer Palace highlights

Enter via New Palace Gate
Stroll the Long Corridor
Walk across Seventeen-Arch Bridge
Take boat ride on Kunming Lake
Climb Tower of Buddhist Incense
Discover Suzhou Street
Relax in garden teahouses
Exit at North Palace Gate

The Experience

The Long Corridor stretches 728 meters along the water, and every panel is painted. That's the kind of detail that stops you mid-step at the Summer Palace in Beijing. You're not just walking through a garden—you're moving through a painted encyclopedia of Chinese history, one brushstroke at a time. Your QR code ticket gets you past the entry lines and straight into that experience, which matters because the Summer Palace draws crowds, especially in summer, and skipping the queue means you actually get to notice things instead of just shuffling forward.

The standard ticket covers the main grounds: Kunming Lake itself, the pavilions that ring it, the Seventeen-Arch Bridge (the one that appears in every Beijing postcard), and the gardens that connect them. If you want more, the combo option adds the Tower of Buddhist Incense—climb that and you're looking out over the entire palace and Beijing's skyline at once—plus Suzhou Street, which is a reconstructed traditional market street, and the Garden of Virtue and Harmony. The suggested route enters at the New Palace Gate, follows the lake, hits the key sights, and exits at the North Palace Gate, which takes most of the day if you're not rushing.

Your ticket arrives as a QR code through the booking platform. Scan it at the gate, no paper needed, and you're in. If something goes wrong with the confirmation, the support team reaches out via WhatsApp to sort it. Seniors 60 and over get free admission with a passport, so if that's you, mention it when you book. The palace is wheelchair accessible, and strollers work fine if you're traveling with small children. Public transport gets you there—it's not remote—so you can decide whether to hire a driver or take the subway depending on what feels right for your day.

What’s included

Admission ticket (standard or combo option).
QR code entry—no paper ticket.
access to Kunming Lake, Long Corridor, Seventeen-Arch Bridge, and imperial gardens.
Tower of Buddhist Incense (combo only).
Suzhou Street (combo only).
Garden of Virtue and Harmony (combo only).
suggested walking route via New Palace Gate to North Palace Gate.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyPublic transport nearbyNot for heart conditions

Operated by Your Beijing Guide

Is this one for you?Right for anyone who wants to see Beijing's most famous royal garden without spending the morning in an entry queue. The QR code ticket and skip-the-line access mean you arrive, scan, and start exploring—no paperwork, no waiting, no negotiation at the gate.