Saturday, March 5, 2016

BEIJING DAY FOUR: 798 ART DISTRICT

I travel out on the bus, about 10 miles outside central Beijing and spend the morning at this sprawling complex of former German electronics factories, now occupied by art galleries, bars and supposedly, studios. It isn't very busy and most of the work on show is disappointingly conservative, not much of it is the “leading-edge” work one is led to expect by the publicity and tourist information. There are not many visitors and some galleries charge entry fees so I don't bother to go in.




I tend to feel that art exhibitions are rarely, if ever, worth paying money to see. I gather what information as I can, as for me this is work!



I wander around looking mean and moody, and have a burger for lunch with beer and catch the bus back to Lama Temple Road, (it's a very long journey, you sometimes feel you're never going to reach the end!)
I actually manage to find a secret network of new galleries in this area and feel pleased about this. I fetch up at Houhai again for lunch.
Couple of beers at Great Leap and back to the hostel, then out for a curry to round off the trip. I drop into a bar that has lovely moving steampunk sculptures and have absinthe on my way back, as I've never tried it before!  

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