2008 Annual Pass to Beijing Parks On Sale Now

Earlier this week, we reported on the 2008 museum pass, which gets you into a whopping 98 museums for just 80 kuai. We’ve since received detail on the yearly park pass, which is on sale starting from today for RMB 200. It's not as fabulous a deal as the museum pass, but if you frequent Beijing's parks, read on.

The pass provides access to eleven major parks (Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Zhongshan Park, Beihai Park, Jingshan Park, Taoranting Park, Beijing Zoo, Xiangshan Park, Beijing Botanical Garden, Yuyuantan Park, and Zizhuyuan Park). Interestingly, about half of these parks have entrance tickets of less than RMB 5 (Taoranting, Yuyuantan, Zizhuyuan, Zhongshan, Botanical Garden, Jingshan ...), with the most expensive among them being the RMB 50 all-inclusive entrance fee to the Summer Palace during peak season. This means that the RMB 200 pass is only really worthwhile if you’re planning on going to one of them on a regular basis – to go for frequent hikes/runs around the Summer Palace, for example, or to repeatedly visit the Beijing Zoo (RMB 10) while you plot your panda liberation movement (somebody needs to do it).

The tickets can be purchased at any of the participating parks, from December 15 to January 15. Bring your passport, one photo, and RMB 200 (unless you're a Chinese senior citizen, in which case you only need RMB 50).

Links and Sources
Beijing.cn: Yearly Park Pass
tbjblog: 2008 Museum Pass