Tickets, hours and Mondays

How much is a Yu Garden ticket in 2026?

40 RMB for adults in peak season and 30 RMB off-peak. Concessions pay half, and small children go free.

The garden runs two price seasons, and they are not the ones you'd guess. Summer is cheap: July and August count as off-peak, together with December to March. Spring and autumn, when the garden looks its best, cost 40 RMB.

Three bits of small print from the official page. One concession ticket per person per day. A free child must come with an adult, and one adult can bring up to three. The free-child rule is for families, not school or tour groups.

What are Yu Garden's opening hours?

09:00 to 16:30 every day except Monday. The gates stop letting people in at 16:00.

The hours stay the same all year. The 16:00 cut-off matters more than the closing time: the garden empties at 16:30, so walking in at 15:50 buys you a rushed half hour among the staff clearing the paths. Give it at least an hour. Two, if you like to stop and look.

Spring Festival is the exception. The official page says opening times over Chinese New Year follow separate announcements, and the lantern festival changes the bazaar around the garden too: see the 2027 lantern festival post. In the evening the garden opens only for a separate guided night tour, covered in Yu Garden at night.

Is Yu Garden closed on Mondays?

Yes, every Monday, unless the Monday falls on a national public holiday. The bazaar, the zigzag bridge and the City God Temple outside stay open.

The official wording is short: closed every Monday, national statutory holidays excepted. A Monday inside a public holiday opens as normal. An ordinary Monday does not, whatever the season or the weather.

Tours deal with it in different ways, so check before you book a Monday:

• The join-in bus tour swaps Yu Garden for the Jade Buddha Temple on Mondays.
• The water town day makes the same swap, says the listing.
• The private full day flags the Monday closure in its own inclusions. On the 4-hour tour and the layover tour, ask what replaces the garden when you book.
• The evening tours and the food walk never enter the garden, so Monday changes nothing for them.

If Monday is your only day in the old city, walk the bazaar and the Nine-Turn Bridge, look into the City God Temple, and see a different garden. Yu Garden will not open for you.

Tuesday to Sunday the bus day includes your Yu Garden ticket; on Mondays it goes to the Jade Buddha Temple instead. Lunch included.

★ 4.6 · 9 hours · from $67

Explore the join-in bus tour → Tour details

Where do you buy Yu Garden tickets, and do you need to book ahead?

At the windows at the North and South gates, or in the official 上海豫园 WeChat mini-program. No advance reservation is required.

The official page lists two ways to buy: the ticket windows at both gates, and the mini-program called 上海豫园 (Shanghai Yu Garden) inside WeChat. It does not ask visitors to reserve a time slot, and it lists no passport pre-registration. The garden's visitor rules add one line worth reading: buy only through official channels.

Most weekdays you can buy at the window and walk in. Weekends, national holidays and the lantern festival weeks are different, and that is when buying in the mini-program and arriving close to 09:00 pays off. To use it you need WeChat with WeChat Pay; a foreign Visa or Mastercard can be linked before you travel. Carry some cash too.

Want a concession? Bring the ID that proves it to the window, which for most foreign visitors means the passport, plus a student card if that is your claim.

When is the cheapest and quietest time to visit?

A weekday morning between December and March, at 09:00: off-peak price and the fewest people. Avoid weekends, Golden Week (1 to 7 October) and Chinese New Year.

Price and crowds pull in different directions. The cheap months include July and August, the school holidays, and the lantern festival weeks of winter. The quiet garden is a weekday morning outside the holidays. China Highlights tells visitors to aim close to 09:00, because tour groups fill the narrow paths by mid-morning at weekends.

Golden Week, the national holiday from 1 to 7 October, is the busiest week of the year. One guest on the private full day walked into it by accident: "Unbeknownst to us, we decided to vacation during Golden Week and were unaware of the national holiday. She knew how to run our schedule to avoid the crowds expected this time of year."

The 30 RMB price returns on 1 December. What else changes over the winter, from holiday crowds to plum blossom, is in the winter 2026-27 post.

Which Yu Garden tours include the entrance ticket?

Three include it outright: the private tour with tea, the private water town day and the join-in bus (Tuesday to Sunday). The full day includes it only on its All Inclusive option.

When the ticket is not included, your guide usually buys it at the window and you pay the 30 or 40 RMB on the spot. Small money, but it is exactly the line that makes one listing look cheaper than another. Private tours here are also priced per person and tiered by group size: the from-price is the lowest tier, and a couple or a solo traveller pays more per head.

The most-booked day here: Yu Garden, the old town, the Bund, the Jade Buddha Temple and Nanjing Road. Pick the All Inclusive option for lunch and the garden ticket.

★ 5.0 · 7 to 8 hours · from $115

Explore the private full day → Tour details

What is inside Yu Garden, and how long do you need?

One to two hours for about 2 hectares of rockeries, ponds and halls, the dragon walls and the Exquisite Jade Rock.

Pan Yunduan began the garden in 1559 for his father, the Ming minister Pan En. It has been damaged by the First Opium War, by the Small Swords uprising and in 1942, then restored and opened to the public in 1961. More than 40 scenic spots fit into the walls. Look out for these:

• The Grand Rockery: walk around it rather than photographing it from one spot. The ponds make it feel twice its size.
• The dragon walls: grey tiled walls topped by dragon bodies. The garden's own site calls it the only dragon wall in a Jiangnan garden.
• The Exquisite Jade Rock (玉玲珑): a porous rock 3.3 m tall, about 5 tonnes, prized for its holes.
• Dianchun Hall: the base of the Small Swords Society from 1853 to 1855.
• Sansui Hall, Wanhua Chamber, Huijing Hall, Yuhua Hall and the Inner Garden: the halls and courtyards that link it all together.

The paths are uneven, with steps, bridges and rockeries. Strollers and wheelchairs can get in, with effort. There is no luggage storage, and pets are not allowed (guide dogs excepted).

Is the Yu Garden ticket worth it?

Yes. 30 to 40 RMB buys the best classical garden in central Shanghai. The bazaar outside is fun, but it is a modern shopping street.

The bazaar's red-and-gold buildings are new, built in an old style. The garden is the real thing: a 16th-century private garden that has survived wars, an uprising and decades of repair. If Suzhou's gardens are not on your trip, this is your one look at a Jiangnan garden, and it costs less than a coffee in Xintiandi.

Going in alone is easy. A guide adds the history and the symbolism, deals with tickets and Chinese, and works around the crowds and Mondays. Tour or DIY weighs it up honestly.

Frequently asked questions