To a casual observer, Beijing is just another metropolitan with a China flair. Its 16,400 km² area and 13.8 millions people certainly make it one of the biggest. Tall buildings line the street. Cars zoom by and leave their exhaust fumes. Starbucks, McDonalds, and KFC are everywhere. The malls exhibit Prada, Dunhill, Burberry, and other world-class brands. Taxi drivers practice English with foreigners. Chinese restaurants mix peacefully with American, European, Indian, and other ethnic foods. Supermarkets shelves find American candies, Australian wines, Italian olive oil, and whatever you will expect from a world-class city supermarket.
It is boring beneath the skin of Peking Duck, Forbidden City, and Great Wall.
Before you find those charms that are the souls of these people.
大山å (DaShanZi) used to be a light manufacturing area. Factory floors and warehouses attracted artists who need cheap space and places to weld, bake, cut, or transform things in some creative ways. DaShanZi hides itself behind the sheet of boxy buildings that face the street. When you penetrate that sheet, you time-travel back 30 years into a maze of low brick buildings and warehouses. The dark and old ambient disagrees with glitters of signs pointing to galleries and exhibitions whose density is amazing. The entire city block, probably a square mile in size and shape, is filled with workshops, galleries, and exhibitions. This is where people actively create, categorize, exhibit, and sell arts. This is the pulse of Beijing, and to some extent, China.
Since artists needs buyers (rich people, probably foreigners) and galleries attract patrons, DaShanZi also needs to have many boutique coffee shops, tasteful bars, and exquisite restaurants. Dining in DaShanZi is trendy these days. It hints the right amount of artistic snobbery eating next to an art dealer negotiating an exhibit with an animated, poorly dressed, stub-bearded future Van Gogh.
 A typical alley that lined with galleries |
 That's the entrance to the public toilet |
 Art in a gallery, a bathtub |
 Art in a gallery, falling |
 Embroidered money |
 Patrons pay no attention to the mock logos |