The 6,487 Square Mile City

At first it appears to be an easy assignment: find an area of interest within Beijing, China. Then I start digging around, looking up facts and figures. One simple search for "Beijing" brings me to this:

Location: Beijing, China

Coordinates: 39°54′50″N 116°23′30″E

Population: 22,000,000

Size: 6,487 square miles

How am I supposed to pin point one location to visit among the six thousand four hundred and eighty-seven square miles that encompass every secret shop, outdoor market, and futuristic skyscraper in Beijing, China?

So I decided to do what it is I do best - make a list:

- Restaurants

- Tea Shops

- Outdoor Markets

- Clothing Shops

- Tourist Attractions

- Non-Tourist Attractions

- Parks

- Aquariums

- Zoos

- Museums

- Art Galleries

- Movie Theaters (are there movie theaters?)

- Amusement Parks

- Bike Paths

- Gardens

- Temples

- Libraries

- Book Stores

- Music Stores

- Malls

- McDonalds

- Bars

- Karaoke Bars

- An Opera House?

The list goes on. . . Overwhelmed, I stop searching.

I take a deep breath and decide to turned to the "holy grail" of world travel - National Geographic. I type in "Beijing Travel" and am brought to a search list cram-packed with the word "Beijing". Beijing Travel Basics, Beijing, China, Beijing Quiz, Beijing City Life Photos, Beijing Sights Photos.

Towards the middle of the page I see a link that looks promising, Beijing Must-Dos. I click, hold my breath, and voila! up pops a tidy list of places to go and people to see in Beijing. As I scroll down the title "Dashanzi Art District" catches my eye. It's one of the few titles that contains a link. Again I click, hold my breath, and am brought to a new page.

798 Space

Gallery Open Times: 10:30am - 7:30pm everyday.

Who are we?
798 Space is a new rising, avant-garde and trendy space that hosts high-level cultural, artistic and commercial activities. It can hold more than 1000 guests with ease: 1000 square meters and up to 9 meters high structural exhibition space + 300 square meters relaxing and eating space + contemporary art book shop + film and video showing area.

Where are we?
Located in Dashanzi Art District (original 798 Factory), the heart of a growing art and culture community in Beijing, 798 Space is the center and the biggest space that provide cultural, artistic and commercial activities in the area. It was designed by the East German's architects in the Bauhaus style in the early 1950's. Through the reconstruction and redesigning with the contemporary aesthetics by artists, the space combines the past, present, and future of the "New China" and the unique meaning of the socialistic culture. 

What we do?
798 Space does not limit itself to organize national and international exhibitions and communications of contemporary art, but looks also to host high-level cultural and commercial activities.

Below is a 2010 exhibit from 798 Space.

"Xu Yong’s new photographic series of works are totally different from his works in the past. This time he makes the objects look foggy abstract color blocks by shooting them out of focus. These fuzzy images of color blocks turn photography from 'capturing pictures of the world' into 'capturing images made possible by photography'. . . from 'what to see' into 'how to see'. . ."

Second Look

By: Xu Yong

This is it. The one place out of the six thousand four hundred and eighty-seven square mile city that I would like to visit for my section of our course trip to Beijing, China.