798 Art District

Factory 798 was built in the 1950s, designed by East German engineers working from Bauhaus principles, to manufacture electronic components for China's military-industrial sector. The sawtooth-roofed shed buildings, designed with north-facing skylights for even diffuse light — ideal factory conditions that also happen to suit gallery display — were largely vacated as the state electronics industry contracted in the 1990s.

Artists began occupying the cheap, large spaces from around 2002, establishing studios and small exhibition spaces. The concentration of activity attracted galleries and commercial operators, and by the time Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008, 798 had been designated an official cultural heritage zone, protecting the factory fabric from demolition. This also stabilised the district as a cultural destination rather than a transitional creative quarter.

The current 798 is a managed arts precinct. The UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art is the anchor institution, with a programme of large-scale exhibitions of Chinese and international contemporary art. Smaller spaces range from commercially oriented galleries representing established Chinese artists to more experimental project spaces. The public realm between buildings accumulates large-scale sculpture on a rolling basis.

The Bauhaus industrial architecture — the concrete pillars, the sawtooth rooflines, the preserved political slogans still stencilled on some walls — provides the aesthetic backdrop that distinguishes 798 from purpose-built arts centres. The contrast between the Maoist-era infrastructure and the contemporary gallery content is part of what the district offers as an experience.