20th. 798 Art District.

Today was interesting. I went to 798, which is a contemporary art district in Beijing, conveniently placed about 15minutes down the road from where my grandparents live. It's an old factory area converted into an art district, ranging from ceramics to clothing. There are also lots of little cafés and restaurants there. The area is littered with vibrant graffiti, giving the old factory a modern edge. In many of the small shops, I found that there was a recurring theme of communism and the Great Leap Forward. I couldn't really tell if it was serious or just for the vintage factor from selling and displaying the items from that era, but I felt that it was the latter. The items sold in the small boutiques were all rather unique items. I even found one selling sew-on patches with the likes of Slipknot and "Punk never dies" slogans amongst images of Mao and whatnot. Unfortuneately almost all of these places forbid photography so I couldn't document a lot of what I saw.

One building was called Panda Mail. The idea is that you send a postcard to arrive anywhere in the world a year or two years from now, in the hope that what you wrote on that card will bring back memories of the present day. I thought that this was such a charming idea, but I had no idea where to send it to, as I had no idea where I would be living in X number of years time. But the place had a number of guestbooks for people to draw write messages etc. I wrote a little essay in english, maybe one day you will find it there.

Overall this place was really something different to experience in Beijing. Lots of independent artists as well as companies promoting their work. My favourite exhibition was at the Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery, where they were featuring a exhibition by Mathias Braschler and Monkia Fischer. Two swiss photographers who travelled China in 2007 taking images of people which truly capture the essence of Chinese people. Their project was entitled "The Chinese". Click to see. Each picture had a name and occupation of the person in the portrait. They had certainly cast a wide net for theis subjects, which ranged from the CEO of a well-known car company to nomads in Inner Mongolia to a prostitute. The girl on the right is the star performer in a travelling circus.

A little cultural village of art. I don't think I even got round to all of the mini galleries, but I went to enough for this place to leave a good and strong impression on me. Jimmy Choo is actually giving a talk in one of the places there tonight but I shall be on an overnight train to Dalian :(
Which I need to pack for. And I need to get in contact with the couchsurfy person. rahrahrah.
It's actually been blisteringly hot today, scorching sun as well as high heat. 34 degrees I think!