798 Art District

Bauhaus Style Former Electronics Factory Complex Turned Contemporary Art District · Beijing, Beijing

A 1950s electronics factory complex in northeast Beijing that became the centre of Chinese contemporary art. The plant was designed by East German architects in austere Bauhaus style, with saw-tooth roofs and north-facing windows built to light the factory floor evenly, and slogans from the Mao era still run in red characters along the curved concrete beams. As production wound down in the 1990s the enormous halls were let cheaply to artists, and by the 2000s galleries, studios, bookshops and cafés had filled them; the district's name comes from Factory 798, one of the original workshops. Today it is partly a serious art centre - the UCCA and other large spaces stage international exhibitions - and partly a weekend promenade of installations, sculpture, coffee shops and design stores, with disused pipework running overhead between the buildings. The mix of industrial architecture, revolutionary slogans and contemporary art is unlike anywhere else in the city, and it is free to wander, with only the bigger galleries charging admission.

798 Art District, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Beijing, China

District lanes open at all hours and free; galleries mostly about 10:00-18:00, many closed Mondays (check).

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