Chinese volunteers will live in a simulated space cabin for up to 200 days as part of Beijing's plan to put people on the moon in the next two decades.
President Xi Jinping has called for China to become a global power in space exploration, with plans to send a probe to the dark side of the moon by 2018 and put astronauts there by 2036.
Beijing is testing the ability for astronauts to stay on the moon for extended periods as it accelerates its space program.
China's official Xinhua news agency says volunteers will live in a "simulated space cabin" for between 60-200 days.
"While it remains unclear exactly how long China's first lunar explorers will spend on the surface, the country is already planning for longer stays," Xinhua said.
Two groups of four volunteers will live in Yuegong-1 to test how a life-support system works in a moon-like environment.
The system, called the Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS), allows water and food to be recycled.
"The latest test is vital to the future of China's moon and Mars missions and must be relied upon to guarantee the safety and health of our astronauts," Liu Zhiheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said.
Yuegong-1 has a central living space the size of a "very small urban apartment" and two "greenhouses" for plants.
A similar 105-day trial was carried out successfully in 2014.
In March, China announced plans to launch a space probe to bring back samples from the moon this year.
The country's first cargo space craft docked with an orbiting space lab in April, a major step as Beijing looks to establish a permanently manned space station by 2022.
Despite advances in China's space programme for military, commercial and scientific purposes it lags behind the US and Russia.
