Not?long ago, American Newsweek magazine selected Beijing as one of the top 12 cities in the world, and the humanity and spirit reflected by 798 Art Zone with all the innovative potential it unleashes, played an important factor in the choice. Newsweek mentioned 798 in the same breath with Manhattan's SoHo district. Now 798 has become the most influential zone for fine art in Beijing, where domestic and foreign gallery-haunters, collectors, and artists of all kinds are compelled to wander, ponder and buy. On November 26, 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited 798 Zone, and expressed his appreciation. President of the European Commission Jose Barroso and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also made a point of visiting the zone. Xia Jifeng, chairman of the International Foundation of Culture and Art of Spain, remarked, "798 Art Zone has undertaken the huge function of stimulating China's modern art industry."

In late 2010, video art entitled Stranger by new media artist Fei Jun was exhibited in 798's Officina Art Studio. Fei Jun studied in Alfred University of the United States, and is now a professor of digital media at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. One of his works, a single-screen video Walking Blindfolded, tracks blindfolded Fei Jun walking in the Guomao and Jianguomen subway stations during the early morning rush hour, and around him are strangers racing to get to work on time. How its people interact with strangers is a distinguishing feature of any modern city, since most of people one encounters in the run of a day are unknown and will never be seen again. Artist Fei Jun has been watching Beijingers carefully, and technically he's been exploring the impact on art and design of a mixed space formed by illusory and real spaces.

Zhu Qi, art critic and master planner of Beijing 798 Art Zone Biennale, said that the works on display in this zone have adopted the avant-garde and innovative techniques of expression, forms that are accessible to people born in the 1980s and 1990s. The themes of the works are environmental protection, wildlife conservation, human health, and the negative effects of industrial society on us all.

798 Art Zone used to be a state-run electronic factory complex, Factory 798. Aided by the former Soviet Union and designed by East Germany in the 1950s, even its establishment as an industrial project is of interest to designers; some buildings are of concrete arch structures in typical Bauhaus style, very rare in Asia. Since 2002, over 400 art studios and modern art institutes from 16 countries and regions have been settled here. The first artist to set up in 798 was Li Xiangqun, a professor with the sculpture department of the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University. Soon, 798 became the "low-lying land" where artists flowed and pooled. They rented and transformed the deserted plants on an impressive scale. Gradually, 798 developed into a settlement concentrating art galleries, art centers, artist's studios, design companies, fashion outlets, restaurants and bars. Within two years, it became the largest art zone in the country and the one most influential beyond China's borders.

The SoHo-style art zone and Loft lifestyle in 798 has aroused attention both at home and abroad. Here, the one-time warehouses and factories have been redefined, designed and transformed, requiring fresh architectural annotation and encouraging new lifestyles. The deserted, now transformed, plants have become architectural art works. A perfect dialogue has been maintained between historical context and new development, and between pragmatic utility and aesthetic value. The almost organic combination of modern art, architectural space, cultural elements, historical context and urban dwellings have made 798 a dynamic environment for modern life and culture. It has attracted both professionals and the general public, and created a new vista of the city as site of urban culture and life.

"Among the creators that inhabit 798 are world-renowned masters of arts and crafts as well as fresh art school graduates," confided Sui Jianguo, a professor of the Central Academy of Find Arts who was one of the earliest to rent a building in the zone. He said that the practical structures are tall and spacious, and the diffused quality of light entering the high and oddly placed windows are an artist's dream; such working spaces are highly sought after by serious artists.

Many art galleries inhabit the famous 798 Art Zone; Beijing Tokyo Art Projects from Japan, the Red Gate Gallery from Australia, and the Art Seasons Gallery from Singapore are a few of the most successful. The UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art), founded by Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007, is one of the largest. Its 8,000 square meters live up to the job; it was designed and transformed jointly by Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Ma Qingyun, founder of the architectural firm Shanghai Madaspam.

Guy and Myriam Ullens are Belgians. They used to run their family's sugar businesses in the United States and Europe, but their efforts met with little success in China. During their China tours Mr. Ullens established profound friendships with young Chinese artists. He had collected many Western art works, but at the suggestion of experts, he began to collect classic and cotemporary Chinese art. He purchased the works of Ai Xuan and Wang Guangyi, and later continued to collect the Chinese avant-garde. In 2002, two years after Ullens quit the family business, he established a foundation with an office in Paris. The foundation invited well-known Chinese-French curator and scholar Fei Dawei to be its inaugural director. Based on 2,000 Chinese and foreign art works they collected over a period of 20 years, the Ullens couple are single-handedly supporting Chinese art, and on top of that they conduct charitable activities. These days the Chinese art market is on the rise again, and those purchases they made of the works of Yue Minjun, Wang Guangyi and Zhang Xiaogang are no doubt proving wise investments.

At the entrance to the center's exhibition hall is an art shop, with many items you'd call wearable art, or one-of-a-kind designs, on display. The Ullens Center is unique in 798 for its rhythmic alliance of life, art and fad.

Following the increasing commercialization of 798 Art Zone however, it was inevitable that some artists would move out of here to Songzhuang and Beigao to engage in pure artistic creation. As a result, now 798 looks more like a fashionable gallery and leisure zone. Ordinary art watchers are often satisfied by attending openings, taking in shows and purchasing clever items unavailable elsewhere; some art work is also quite inexpensive and therefore accessible. Popularity does not imply the negation of elite culture, but brings culture to the doorstep of the masses and influences their lives.

Popularization is followed by internationalization, which is appropriate since 798's customers come from all over the world.