Free doesn't mean walk-in

China made a lot of its best museums free. Entry is ¥0 at the major national and provincial museums, and the zero applies to memorials, some parks and a good number of the sites a visitor most wants. The part that catches people: ¥0 means no ticket fee, not no ticket. Most of these places run a real-name reservation system with timed slots, and the popular ones run out days ahead.

How the reservation works

• Real-name. You book against a passport number, not a name typed loosely. Enter it exactly as printed, because the gate checks the document.
• Timed. Entry slots, morning and afternoon, and the slot is part of the booking. Turning up at the wrong hour is turning up without a booking.
• Through the app. Reservations usually live inside WeChat or Alipay mini-programs, or on the museum's own site. This is the practical reason those apps get set up before you fly.
• Limited release. Slots open a few days out and go quickly at the big museums in peak weeks.

What to carry on the day

The passport. Real-name entry means the document, not a screenshot of it — the same passport that books the train and checks you into the hotel. Arrive inside your slot, not at the end of it.

Closed days, the other half of the problem

Free or not, closing day is its own trap. National museums shut Mondays. The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall shuts Tuesdays — not Mondays, which is the reflex everyone arrives with. A site open at 9am can stop admitting at 16:30. All of it is checkable; none of it is in the guidebook you skimmed on the plane.