798 艺术区 [art zone]
Beijing, China
We spent a delightful (though unbelievably smoggy) day today wandering serendipitously through the myriad alleys and galleries of 798 Art Zone (aka the Dashanzi Art District), an avant-garde artist community thriving in and amongst 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings—a combination of contemporary art, architecture, and alternative creative expression that has evolved into a truly unique cultural concept. Certainly not the China I encountered on earlier visits only a few years ago…