Beijing Bike Tour

As the step of our modern life has been faster and faster, more and more people start to pay attention to the relaxing sports at the leisure time. Bicycle tour has been a hot choice regarding the economical facility, convenient equipment and flexible time and route.

Today we would like to introduce an amazing bicycle tour itinerary to 798 Art Zone. We start from Dongsheng Bicycle Store which is located at No. 51 South Street Chaoyang Gate, Dongcheng District. It is one of the biggest stores for retailing the equipments of the bicycles and cars. You can find various kinds of bicycles there for rent and it is very easy for you to pick your favorite one.

Riding towards north on South Street of Chaoyang Gate, turn left when you arrive in Chaoyang Men Wai Street. After riding about 800 meters, you will arrive in Chaoyang Gate. Then ride eastward along Chaoyang Road and turn left at the second crossing when you reach the East Third Ring (Dong San Huan) Road. Continue riding about 2.3 kilometers, you will arrive at the next stop Hujialou. Heading northwards along the North Street of East Third Ring Road, you will arrive at Liangmaqiao station. Turn right and ride along Liangmaqiao Road for about 3200 meters and you will get to Jiuxianqiao Road where your final destination is.

798 Art Zone is located in No.2 Jiuxianqiao Street of Chaoyang District in city area. As it is the first art institution built in 798 factory area, this place is called 798 Art Zone. It is also called Dashanzi Art District because it is located in the place called Dashanzi. It covers more than 60 kilometers square and used to be Beijing North China Wireless Joint Equipment Factory which also was named 718 Joint Factory and assisted to be built by former East Germany. 718 Joint Factory was started to design from 1952, constructed in 1954 and used for production from Oct of 1957.

The designer and the contractor of 718 Joint Factory was a famous German architecture institution in Dessau which was in the same city with the Bauhaus School at that time. The Bauhaus school is one important fraction in the history of German architecture and the main target of the Bauhaus school is focusing on the practical requirement, highlighting the technical and aesthetics performances from the combine of the new material and the new structure. The typical characteristic is the flexible and diverse blueprint and the compact appearance.

718 Joint Factory was removed by the administration department in Apr of 1964 and divided into several small factories. The original 6 factories including 700,706,707,718,797,798 were reorganized and incorporated as Beijing Seven Star Science and Technology Corporation in December of 2000. To cooperate with the reform planning of Dashanzi Area, a part of the factories need to be moved out. And the empty workshops could have a good use for rent. Taking the advantages of the well-regulated organization, convenient transportation, distinctive Bauhaus style architecture, plenty of art institutions started to set up here and a large amount of artists were attracted to rent the idle workshops. Gradually it was built as a diverse cultural space including galleries, art studios, cultural companies like animated cartoon, television media, publishing, design and consultation, which came from France, Italy, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Australian, South Korea, China and the other countries and regions. 798 Art Zone has become an international exhibition center of Chinese art and culture.

798 Art Center is located in the 706 hall and it is the biggest serrated workshop. The large space, far distance of the big post which showed the original German Bauhaus style particularly is still kept and the practical and compact designing idea is also well presented.

The particular gray vaulted ceiling with the highest roof of 8.6m and the north faced slantwise skylight which made the indoor lighting symmetrical and constant are the major features of the Bauhaus hackle hall. The big space contains the increasingly mottled giant vermeil slogan, abandoned equipment and facility which highly presented the agglomeration of the history and culture which bring us the giant visual impact and create the special atmosphere for the art and culture institution.

798 Art Center can not only hold all kinds of art exhibitions but also provide the places for commercial activities. A lot of world famous branches such as Bens, Dior, Hugo Boss, Nike, Mark Cheung used to hold the promotion or press conference here which has developed the culture value for the product.

It is free for you to visit 798 Art Zone and you can take your camera to take plenty of photos of the nice statues, absorbing exhibition halls and fascinating studios. While, there may be forbiddance for the photograph in some private exhibition area.

Outside the South Gate of 798 Art Zone, you can find a very old train which seems to have been abandoned for a long time. It is a good chance if you want to take some classical photos which present the old times and classic beauty. Many Chinese young people choose to take the wedding photos here.

Here is a useful tip for you. There is no charge for the bicycle parking in 798 Art Zone. While, there is also no special bicycle parking lot. So we kindly suggest you take care of your bike when you are visiting.

After going through 798 Art Zone, if you still have time, you can ride eastwards to go across the North Bridge of the Ring Railway. After riding about 4600 meters, you will arrive at the entrance of the National Film Museum and the exact address is No.9 of Nanying Road in Chaoyang District. The opening time of the National Film Museum is 09:00-16:30 and it is also free of charge.

Compared to the world famous film museum, Chinese National Film Museum is not majestic and luxurious. While, it still shows us the tremendous development of Chinese film for hundreds of years and presents to us that Chinese film covers more than Kungfu and Period Dramas. You can obviously feel the fabulous history of film-making, editing and rearrangement. Besides watching the film-making displays, you can also get the fun from sitting on a magical carpet which keeps moving and turning while the screen replaces the blue set with Chinese gorgeous sceneries.

Beijing Aerospace Model Museum is only about 1100 meters away from National Film Museum and it is the first model museum. The whole museum includes the space model making area, the exhibition hall, the teaching region. Visitors can make the models by themselves. The admission fee is CNY20.00 per person for the adult and CNY10.00 per person for the students. The special flight performance needs an extra ticket which is CNY40.00 net per person for the adult and CNY25.00 net per person for the students.

798 Art Zone has been growing to be the new settlement for the artists in Beijing. It is really worthy for you to take a bike tour there to experience the artistic atmosphere and watching the great changes from the abandoned old factories to the new fashion birth place.