Travelogue: Beijing's 798 Art Zone

Go back to understand nothing stays the same.

Riding high spirits from the surprising and fun day at The Palace Museum, our intention to revisit another adventure from our past looked like it couldn’t miss. Beijing’s 798 ArtZone became a trendy and avant-garde district of old state owned factory buildings and warehouses taken over and repurposed by start up designers and students after 1995.

Our younger family visited in 2017, when the boys were nine and five. Our careers were intense, constantly travelling and trying to square company and customer cultures that just would never compromise. Being in the presence of art and artistic endeavours refreshes the mind, like a good night’s sleep rebuilds the body. Now we return, not in need of an escape, but to give our boys a memory they will actually remember.

798 started existence as a military factory 75 years ago, built in cooperation with the Soviet Union and East Germany (remember them?). You can still see Bauhaus influences in some of the buildings. This was one of the largest and most successful factories in China during its heyday, being the home of more than 20,000 workers and their families.

By the 1990s, economic reforms left many state owned companies mostly closed, and so “798” remained until the Central Academy of Fine Arts began using some of the buildings for art shows in 1995. By 2003, a growing group of eclectic artists had galleries and studios. Being on the outskirts of Beijing at the time, the cost to space ratio was ideal for artists who needed a lot of space to create.

My memories of 798 have that glow that pleasant experiences of the past acquire with time. October 2017 was clear and comforting, sun warming the crowds that mingled on the streets, moving in and out of galleries and shops. Small kids both slow us down and encourage us to be deliberate, commanding rest and resupply in a reliable way that we adults seem to lose in our busy-ness.

The late morning of December 2024 was cold, emphasized by the stiff breeze and flirted with windy as we exited the metro and walked the hundred yards to 798. My flimsy H&M hat was going to be no match for this and I began to toy with the idea of suggesting we hit up a mall later that night to make an upgrade. Inside 798, few faces greeted us and it came upon me that the vibe of 798 has changed in the preceding seven years.

The first gallery we ducked inside showed just how much. Tickets, please. While many galleries in 2017 were free, now most charge to even look around, and not a pittance either. Sixty, eighty yuan, per person! Repulsed, we took our puritan selves back out into the biting cold.

My oldest son chooses this moment to opine that, “This is worse than Taoxichuan.” I had to grudgingly cede the point. Tauxichuan, the ceramic art district of Jingdezhen, was all potential when we visited in March 2024. I liked it! But we all agreed he had a point.

But not everything was headwind. Some element of Nature was looking out for me. As I worried over my flimsy hat situation, my wife directed us to a vintage clothing store, well-known for being frequented by local celebrities.

I couldn’t help laughing. The store felt like walking through a time and space warp to the American Midwest of the 1960s and 70s. Engineer overalls, flannel shirts, rough plaid jackets, just like my Dad, Grandpa, and uncles all wore to work and on the farm. Colorful handkerchiefs with those paisley patterns for wiping a sweaty brow. They even had “hunter orange” hats. In the corner, a box of random vintage sports team winter hats! I settled on a team I could live with, The NY Giants.

Properly rearmed and armoured with my new hat, I did not have to fear the northern cold for the rest of the trip. I tried to find what year the design matches but that is harder than it first seems. If anyone is a NY Giants superfan and recognizes the design, a clue is much appreciated.

I begin to understand the life cycle of 798. On the outskirts of Beijing, unused and unloved, the perfect ground for new creative life to take hold. Then prosperity and the hunger for newness brought interest, business, and an explosion of growth. The place became the definition of cool. Beijing was changing and growing too, expanding its reach, and eventually engulfed 798 again. Landlords saw the crowds, the press, the fashion shows exploiting the “useless” warehouse buildings, and realized there was scope to raise rents. Property taxes were rising, after all, as more attention brings all kinds of new and previously hidden costs to the fore.

An Iranian goods store. Mostly rugs.

And then, Covid-19. Three years of lockdowns, closed airports, quarantine hotels. The worst cocktail any evil wizard could concoct for human collaboration and innovation. Even the most dedicated foreign-owned galleries found the going impossible. The confidence of the aspiring wealthy lost their nerve. International buyers decided with encouragement to stay home. The enchantment was broken. 798 could never go back.

Only the potential remained, and the name. The name, the brand identity, now nearing thirty years of memories, that persists and gains in value as the fond memories in the minds of those like me only grows with age.

As I mused on this, we braved the wind. Taking pictures here and there. Time for lunch. We had our sights on a recently opened restaurant and bar, the Commune Reserve. It looked posh, upscale, an upmarket award for our holiday time together. Just the kind of brand that would be drawn to the new 798.

And Commune was good and worth every Yuan, and the warm interior was not too bad either. I have only recently learned that The Shenzhen Art Center in Nanshan (remember that one?) has a new Commune Museum branch. The same chain with a slightly different name.

It is nice. The salad, pasta, and pizza are all top notch. Odd and surprising the fancy “wagyu beef” burger was the least impressive. We didn’t sample any cocktails. Alcohol doesn’t excite me at all anymore. If you go, get the signature oxtail grilled cheese, trust me.

Back outside, into the cold, looking for one of the landmark buildings of 798, the UCC Building. The Ullens Art Center, a distinctive red building with many windows.

When we did find UCC, I found what I had now expected. Expensively ticketed shows and an eclectic local clothing and accessory brand in the lobby. A towering UGG Boots logo on the side of the building proclaimed where 798 is going: corporate.

Avant-garde places have a natural life on the Coolness Curve. At first creative and rebellious, then peaking in popularity, and then declining as demand goes up and costs increase. The capital requirements rise until only very well established players can afford to make the deals.

What a surprising result. I was not looking forward to our visit to the Palace Museum. I’ll be honest, I expected the old and stuffy Forbidden City to be boring, empty, and frustrating for our family, but more than I have changed in the intervening years. The Palace Museum has life again, much credit to the visitors and their passion for history and cosplay. I guess I have to thank social media too for encouraging so many of us to come out of our shells and share more of what we find exciting.

In contrast, 798 feels hollowed out, on the road to feeling contrived. A dangerous place for an artistic milieu to thrive in. The graffiti tells a story that will look increasingly out of place in the modern incarnation of 798.

For my taste, I find that whether peaceful or lively, authenticity carries the day. Is 798 authentic? Was it ever? I don’t know, but I will take the quirky coffee stands and small art shows over the big brand billboards any day.

I am being overly critical. We enjoyed ourselves despite all of this being true. We bring our own views with us, and like tinted glasses, they colour our opinions. On the larger subject of how China is doing, we have a salient example here. We look for what we want to see, and our past experiences and biases always set limits on what conclusions we can reach. The Palace Museum shows a vibrant young and old population excited to participate and spend money. Artzone 798 looks in decline by comparison! What’s the difference? There isn’t one. Trends, businesses, and money flow from here to there all the time. I would not draw any sweeping conclusions about China’s economy from our four days in Beijing.

We did a bit of shopping as the sun set (like four in the afternoon…). Guess which pin is mine?

Beijing 798nArt Zone, 2017