Beijing - 798 Art District
The Headless Mao statue in the 798 Art District - Beijing
798 Art District Photo Gallery (Downloadable Pictures)
Description:
Beijing 798 Art Zone, named after the 798 factory which was
built in 1950s, is located in the northeast corner of
Beijing city. The Dashanzi Art District (DAD) is its another
name as it sits in Dashanzi zone. The art zone covers an
area of 0.6 square kilometer, with Jiuxianqiao Road to its
west, Beijing-Baotou railway to its east, Jiangtai Road to
its south and Jiuxianqiao Road North to its north. Beijing
798 Art Zone, characterized by modern art, has become the
exhibition center of Chinese culture and art, and also the
world- famous cultural and creative industries centralized
area .
The area occupied by Beijing 798 Art Zone was once the place
for Beijing North China Wireless Joint Equipment Factory.
Afterwards, the corporation moved out of the Dashanzi
District and leased those plants (798 factory being one of
them). The architectural style, featuring simple design and
varied composition, follows the Bauhaus way. Attracted by
ordered design, convenient traffic, unique style of Bauhaus
architecture, many art organizations and artists came to
rent the vacant plants and transformed them. Gradually there
formed a district gathering galleries, art studios, cultural
companies, fashion shops etc. As the area where the early
art organizations and artists moved in was located in the
original area of the 798 plant, this place was named Beijing
798 Art Zone.
Graffiti on the wall in 798 Now Beijing 798 Art Zone has
attracted a great deal of attention from the media at home
and abroad; and it also has become the new regional mark of
Beijing. Galleries, design studios, art exhibition spaces,
artists' studios, fashionable shops, restaurants, bars etc.
now assemble here. By January 2008, over 400 cultural
organizations, coming from France, Italy, Britain, the Nethe
rlands, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Australia, South Korea,
Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries and
regions, have settled down in the zone. Nowadays, Beijing
798 Art Zone frequently holds important international art
exhibitions and art activities as well as fashion shows. In
order to expand the reputation and influence of the art zone
and to promote the development of the modern art, the zone
has held the Beijing 798 Art Festival (from the end of April
to the end of May) every year since 2006. Another festival
is the Beijing 798 Creative Art Festival (from the end of
September to the end of October). The two festivals focus on
exhibition and communication of culture and art. Many
worldwide political figures, movie stars, and social
celebrities have not been able to resist the art zone's
attraction and have come to pay a visit. Since 2004, Prime
Ministers from Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria, ex-Prime
Minister from German (Schroeder), the President of European
Union (Barroso), the Princess of Belgium's Prime Minister,
President of the IOC Rogge, and the Belgium Crown Prince all
have come here.
(TravelChinaGuide.com)
798 Art District
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