Art in the 798 Art District, Beijing. Photo / 123RF
From contemporary galleries to ancient artefacts, Beijing’s art scene is far more dynamic than you may expect, according to Lonely Planet’s book, Art Destinations.
Newcomers to China might expect to find artistic expression stifled by the state, but creativity abounds inside the People’s Republic. There’s censorship, certainly, and social codes that can be just as tricky for artists to navigate, but also a lavish history of painting, sculpture, music, poetry, song and dance spanning four millennia, alongside dynamic modern movements in art and design.
The capital of China since 1279, Beijing is the pulsing heart of the Chinese art scene, and commercial galleries are opening at breakneck speed as the middle classes flex their art-buying muscles. It’s fascinating to contrast the state-approved view of art at the National Art Museum of China with the effusive creativity on show in spaces such as the postindustrial UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art.
Exhibitions were once concentrated in artists’ quarters, such as the legendary 798 Art District and the now-demolished Caochangdi Art District – former home of Ai Weiwei’s studio – but today galleries are diffusing through the city.
Swing by central spots such as Today Art Museum or surprising exhibition spaces in the burbs like the garden-ringed Red Brick Art Museum – you’ll find work that transcends expectations, making challenging statements about China’s changing identity.
NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA
Slip into a world of ethereal hand-scroll paintings, intricate calligraphy, Communist iconography and ambitious modern expression at the largest art museum in China. While controversial topics are rarely tackled, you’ll find everything from art photography to 1000-year-old Buddhas, in a landmark campus close to the Forbidden City.
UCCA CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Part of the hip and happening 798 Art District, this boundary-pushing art museum was founded in 2007 and is still one of the best places to take the pulse of the Beijing art scene. Exhibitions and public events always lead somewhere interesting.
A factory for creativity
There’s no better metaphor for the journey of Beijing’s art scene than the 798 Art District in Dashanzi. Founded in 1951 as part of the Socialist Unification partnership between China and the Soviet Union, this once-gloomy factory complex was originally part of China’s military-industrial facility, but has blossomed into a hub for contemporary art. Conceived by Russian, Chinese and East German engineers, these functional blocks were adorned with Communist slogans in red Chinese characters, reminding the thousands who worked here (producing electronics) of their grand social mission. The slogans remain today, fading slowly on the ceiling arches above eclectic works of modern art. Having fallen into a slow decline in the late 1980s, the complex began its phoenix-like renaissance in 1995, when the Central Academy of Fine Arts set up a workshop in Factory 706. More creatives followed – first sculptor Sui Jianguo, then a flood of artists and designers – including Huang Rui of the avant-garde Stars Art Group – who put the 798 Art District on the map. Today, the complex has become Beijing’s most dynamic art address, alive with workshops, studios, exhibition spaces, shops, bars and cafes, alongside prestigious art institutions like the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art. Make a day of it and see what you discover ...
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This extract from Art Destinations was reproduced with permission from Lonely Planet © 2025.