An English Teacher in China: The 798 Art Zone

The Welcome Sign

This week I traveled to Beijing’s famous 798 Art Zone. The 798 Art Zone is a collection Beijing’s contemporary art galleries all housed in an old abandoned electronics factory. Most of the old factory has been preserved and restored. Warehouses and machine rooms have become the homes of hundreds of paintings and statues. Every imaginable space of this enormous industrial district has been dedicated to the arts.

What once was a working rail yard is now a blue mountain thing.

The 798 Art Zone is very bohemian in nature. There are western style coffee shops on every corner right alongside plenty of places to get a glass of wine. The Art Zone is free to get in but the shops and restaurants will cost an arm and leg. That’s why I decided to find lunch outside the Art Zone. There are a number of reasonably priced Chinese restaurants just on the outskirts of the Art Zone where I was able to find a simple hole-in the whole that served some great cooked cabbage in soy sauce. The menu at this local establishment was even in English. However, the translation wasn’t that good. I found a dished called “Gluttonous Frog.” I soon learned that a more proper translation would be “Hungry Fish.” Neither name sounded overly pleasing.

"I'd like an order of Gluttonous Frog, please."

The 798 Art Zone takes a little bit of traveling to get too from Langfang. I started out the morning ridding the fast train to the South Beijing Railway Station. Once there, I needed to transfer to the subway and travel clear to the other side of the city. The 798 Art Zone isn’t very close to any subway stops so a bus is required for the final leg of the journey. All-in-all it took about two hours to get from my apartment in Langfang to the 798 Art Zone. That’s not bad considering the actual distance covered.

"Did somebody loose a needle or a haystack? Anybody?"

One of my favorite galleries at the Art Zone was the home of some great oil paintings. The place was called, “The Light of China,” and it reminded me of the works of Claude Monet. It wasn’t quite as impressionistic as Monet but the colors and scenes were very pleasant to behold. From a distance, the oil paintings looked like a photograph. There was a picture of some Lilies, a babbling brook, a sleeping shepherd boy, and others. My favorite was a piece titled “Home.”

"Sunlight Cowboy"

"The Purple Flower"

"The Brook"

"Home"

It takes a bit to find all of the galleries and most of them were closed for the spring festival. However, enough stayed open for a full day’s visit. I recommend that any future visit be will to explore. Galleries are hidden down the narrow passage ways and dimly lit allies. It looks pretty shady but make sure to explore every open door. The best galleries are sometimes hidden away behind a maze of tight concrete passage ways. Almost every corner of the Art Zone is accessible to the public so you don’t have to worry about wondering into a spot where you’re not aloud. They encourage exploration and that’s part of the fun!

One of the larger galleries I discovered was a big building housing a group of copper smiths. These artists were skilled at melting copper into all sorts of shapes and designs. There were all sorts of copper flowers, bowls, and Buddhist statues. However, the best part was called the Rice Way. The Rice Way is this 20’x15’ copper statue of a life-sized rice field. Each stalk of rice was individually molded and placed in an arrangement of hundreds of stalks. It was simply amazing to uphold!

A Copper Tree

The Rice Way

Copper Flowers

Most of the art exhibits encouraged photo taking but some didn’t. So I can’t share pictures of all the great things I saw. Safe to say, there is quite the assortment. There was one gallery that belonged to a French artist that was just creepy. There was a giant spider statue in one of the rooms so I’d recommend some to stay away. But there are other great galleries to visit instead. There are galleries containing traditional Chinese arts, steal sculptures, experimental art, traditional Chinese umbrellas, post-modern works of art, and everything in-between. There’s a little bit of everything for everybody. The actual artists have a workshop next to their galleries so you might even get to meet one during a visit.

If you ever come to Beijing then I highly recommend a visit to the 798 Art District. It’s a great place to spend the day getting lost exploring a world of art. However, I do recommend coming when it’s a bit warmer or when some of the musical festivals are in the area.