Beijing: 798

798 is a huge disused electrical factory complex that is now an arty mini village filled with galleries, cafes and tattoo parlours. It is my new favourite place in Beijing, and I’m planning on a trip back up at the end of April to see the new exhibitions. Not only is it filled with an eclectic selection of modern Chinese artists, but everyone there is having fun. There’s nothing of the pinched atmospheres I tend to associate with art galleries, just a sense of quiet joy. The people there were a mixture of hip young art students, the Beijing intelligentsia, expats, photographers and art dealers. People watching alone is an entertaining enough reason to go there.

The area is quite far out of the city centre and isn’t talked up in guide books, so there weren’t that many obvious tourists there, which seems a shame. I feel like if you want to get an idea of what China is like, you are much better off coming here rather than trolling around the Summer Palace or Forbidden City. Although perhaps it’s a good thing it’s not popular on the tourist circuit yet, as it means that even on a Saturday afternoon I was the only person in some of the galleries.

these freaked me out so much I had to leave the gallery

You can also take photos inside all the galleries, which means that I have a multitude of pictures that I want to show you. I’ve eventually managed to whittle it down to some of my favourites, although I could have posted about 798 for the rest of the week! Click on the signs to enlarge them so that you can read them. It's well worth the effort as they give an interesting insight to the variety of different opinions Chinese people have about the development of their country.

I liked this violin statue

Work by Wang Jiuliang, from my favourite gallery MR Gallery

Cheng Yuyang's photographs of the Sichuan earthquake, again at MR Gallery.

From the 'Rush to the City' series by Chen Yufei. Many of the rural poor come to the cities as migrant workers, where they work for next to nothing and often have terrible living conditions.

This notice accompanied an exhibition of stereotypically art studenty photos of the Birdsnest Stadium, but it is an interesting contrast to the views above. Note that the years of the Cultural Revolution are completely left out of the narrative.

The factory was so large that it even used to have it’s own station, and there is this preserved steam train with a carriage in the old station. Unsurprisingly, Chinese little boys seem to be as fascinated with steam engines as Western little boys! It is also a popular backdrop for photographs, and I caught this group of hipsters organising their group photo.

The area is kept immaculately clean by a legion of sweepers and litter pickers, and I snapped these two workers having a ponder whilst gazing at the steam train. As I walked around I noticed that several of the street cleaners (who probably work every day of the year for a barely subsistence wage) taking a quick break to look at something interesting, which found it quite heart warming.

To take a day trip somewhere new, visit My World Tuesday.