798 Art District

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  • Address
    2 & 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Dashanzi
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  • Phone
    6438 4862
  • Transport
    bus: 403 or 909

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Lonely Planet review

A disused and converted electronics factory, 798 Art District is Běijīng's leading concentration of contemporary art galleries. The industrial complex celebrates its proletarian roots in the communist heyday of the 1950s via retouched bright red Maoist slogans decorating gallery interiors, scattered effigies of Mao and burly, lantern-jawed workers.

The voluminous factory workshops are ideally suited to art galleries that require space for multimedia installations and other ambitious projects. You could easily spend an entire day visiting the complex and its cafes and restaurants, making 798's non-central inaccessibility less of an inconvenience and more of an opportunity for an outing.

Some galleries are more innovative than others; there is challenging and cutting-edge material, but prepare for hackneyed and technically unaccomplished work.

Standout galleries include the impressive White Space Beijing (2 Jiuxianqiao Lu - Tue-Sun), 798 Red Gate Gallery (2 Jiuxianqiao Lu) - with its utilitarian and industrial ambience - and the vast 798 Space (798 Shítài Kōngjiān; 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu; - ).