Another little Beijing Note: The Dashanzi Art District

Another highlight from Beijing (and serious deficit in Shanghai) is the vivid underground art scene. While Shanghai has to content itself with a (mildly underground) art street (Taikang Lu) and a few scattered galleries, Beijing has an old industrial district now converted into row after row of fantastic art galleries. The area is so large one can refer to the 'thriving underground Beijing art scene' by simply pointing to this single area, eliminating any doubt about whether such a thing truly exists or not. The same definitive claim can unfortunately not be made in Shanghai.

There are some truly spectacular former industrial plant turned gallery conversions, such as the one pictured here.

And should there be any doubt regarding the will of these artists to offer a few necessary (and sorely lacking) political critisms, look no further.

To add to the whole...well, mystique of the areas ambiance and atmosphere, are pipes running throughout the area emiting puffs of steam continually...

Incidently, if you are ever looking for the space of all spaces to stage a little bash, this place pictured below is without any question the place to make it happen.

Yes, that's right, China - Number One! Umm, well...perhaps.

A Little Beijing note: That's an antique market...

On a recent little diversion over to Beijing, we headed out to what was reputedly Beijing's largest antique market. It didn't disappoint. Rather, it left us longing for such a thing in Shanghai. Now, there is a nice little rustic antique market spanning a couple streets in Shanghai (to be featured in an upcoming entry), but it has nowhere near the scope of Beijing's vast and fascinating market.

Let's be clear, first of all. Like so many other things in China, the term 'antique' is used quite loosely and may not be quite what it seems. Rather, it is a euphemism for 'stereotypical Chinese cultural relics' These may in fact be brand new, or perhaps they were just buried in a garden for a few days or months to give them that authentic 'been around for a while' look. Believe me, anything and everything is possible in China, especially in places like Shanghai and Beijing.

I must admit, I really wanted one of these little evil looking guys...

Hey, you never know when a bit of broken pottery will come in handy...

Or a stuffed deer head...

Well...

Or perhaps you'd prefer to wake up every morning to this...

An intense bargaining session for this one failed - I was at 50 RMB, she was still at 180 RMB when I ran out of time to continue...a shame, there was something about this guy I really found cool.