798 Art Zone. The area occupied by Beijing 798 Art Zone today was once the place for Beijing North China wireless joint equipment factory (namely, 718 Joint Factory) built during the first five-year plan (1949-1954) with the help of former Soviet Union and East Germany. The Joint Factory is of typical Bauhaus style with perfect combination of practicality and concision.

From 2002 on, more and more artists and art companies moved here, with appreciation the vast space and low rent. People took some workshops as their work studio or demonstration space one after another. Thus the "snowball" of 798 artists rolled bigger and bigger. Because of the typical modernism Bauhaus style of some factory buildings, the orderly-planned courtyard and the distinctive architectural style, more artists were attracted to settle here and formed the present 798 Art Zone gradually.

However, 798's long-term survival is uncertain, with Beijing's mayor musing that they would "look, regulate, and discuss" the use of the space, which the owners and the Chaoyang municipal government hope will become a technology park. If a visit to 798 whets your appetite for more avant-garde Chinese art, many of 798's artists, faced with spiraling rents and an increasingly commercial atmosphere, have moved to Song Zhuang, a village to the east of town (www.artistvillagegallery.com), currently the largest art community in the world, where 500 artists reside and work.