The 798 Art District, Beijing

The 798 complex was built in the 1950s as a state electronics plant to an East German design, in a stripped Bauhaus manner: long halls under sawtooth roofs, north-facing skylights that pour even light onto the floor, exposed steel trusses and pipework overhead. Production wound down, artists took the cheap space from around 2002, and the district in Dashanzi is now a grid of galleries, project rooms, studios, bookshops and design stores across several blocks. Some of it is serious contemporary work in very large rooms; a good deal of it is retail and coffee. Cranes, gauges and boiler pipes were left in place, and that is much of the appeal.

What you actually see

• The factory halls - sawtooth roofs and north light built for machines, now used for large installations.
• The gallery blocks - established spaces and short-run project rooms, most free to walk into.
• The industrial leftovers - cranes, pipework and pressure gauges kept among the exhibits.
• The studio lanes - quieter side streets where working artists and small presses remain.

When to go

Most galleries open around ten or eleven and close by six or seven, and many shut on Mondays. Weekends bring crowds and fashion shoots, so a weekday afternoon is far better for actually seeing work. Spring and autumn are the pleasant months in Beijing. Allow three hours to cover the main blocks.

Honest expectations

Rents rose, several respected galleries left, and a fair share of the space is now souvenir shops rather than art. Exhibitions change constantly, so the quality of any given visit is luck. The complex is spread out and confusing without a map, it is a long way from the centre, and there is little shelter in bad weather.

Nearby

The Caochangdi art cluster lies further out; the Olympic park is to the northwest.