Museums, Beijing

I just found out, that there is a Museum of Tap Water in Beijing, which shows the history of tap water in Beijing. I have not seen it yet, but I am sure, I visit, when I come to Beijing next time. It looks like a good idea to see the development of tap water during the last 100 years.

Normally I don't like military museums and exhibitions of wars and weapons. But I went to the Military Museum because of a special exhibition and then visited the normal exhibitions, too. This museum exhibits weapons from stone age to modern times. It is very impressive to see all this early inventions of bombs, fireworks and ancient shooting machines.

The museum is not far from the TV-Tower and a nice park.

Address: No. 9, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing.
Zip Code: 100038
Telephone: 0086-10-66817161
Opening time: 8:30 to 16: 00
Bus Route: Underground railway, and bus Nos. 1, 4 and etc, get off in the station of Military Museum.

I am so glad that I discovered this place, it seems to be the trendiest place to go these days in Beijing. Dashanzi ,located in the North West, along the road to the airport is an industrial complex.
(no.2 JiuXianQiao road, Chaoyang District)
If you have problems in finding this place, you can for instance call "White Space Beijing" (one of the art galleries at Dashanzi) at 8456 2054.

A few of the factories are still running but most of them are deserted. Recently, people from the Art world have rented these places to exhibit their own works such as paintings or photos.
It's pretty amazing and unexpected to see modern art in factories. We wondered in it and whenever we see a poster for a gallery, we went in. Also, there are a few cafes/restaurants opened inside this industrial complex. I really liked it and think it's worth a visit.

This is a wonderful little museum nestled inside Peking University. Even though it doesn't have an expansive collection like the Chinese Museum of History and Art (the one near Tiananmen), its collection is focused, intriguing and well presented. Most of the items were "ming chi" taken from tombs and burial sites. The photo on the left was copied from the Peking University web site. The photographer is Liu Keyu. You can check out more pictures at http://ennews.pku.edu.cn

Xiannongtan is the name of the Altar of Agriculture.

This was the place for the emperors of Ming&Qing to plant / farm here,perform ceremory of planting to call the peasants all over the country to undertake the farming work, cause China was big agriculture coutry. Even emperors need to do it, the field called the Land of One and Three-Tenth Mu for the empoerors.

Located west of the Temple of Heaven, tiantan, take bus No.15 get off at Naiweilu.

Now it is the place of the exhibition for ancient architecture, chinese wood architecture, without one nail in whole Building.

This is a communist era factory converted into an art community. Near by are functioning factories and some encroaching retail and apartment blocks. This houses some very inovating and curious art. If you want to see where some modern Chinese art is being produced, this is it.

To get here take the new subway line (strangely above ground) number 13, four stops north on the east side to wang jing xi. From here it is a sizeable walk or a 15 RMB taxi ride to Da Shan Zi. The cabbie might not know where the heck you are going. It is very close to the Da Shan Zi roundabout on JiuXianQiao Road.

Two major entrances to the area are on the west side of the art park. Once inside follow signs to various studios, galleries, bars, and other stores. Or go to the Timesone 8 Art book store where a map of the area is available.

I was lucky enough to crash two gallery openings. Good luck with that.