It was here that Beijing`s avant garde first stumbled on a post- industrial promised. land, that
proletarian slogans on the walls providing a powerfully gimmicky context. The area was soon dubbed 798, after
the Bauhaus style factory798 electronics plant at it core, now the 798 space exhibition centre ( above)
. Sections were mothballed by the 1980s and pennies per square metre rents in the mid 1990s attracted
the first resettiers; the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Art publisher Robert Bernell moved in and seminal artists
like Huang Rui, followed Dark forces nearly spoiled in. Citing safety hazards, 798`s owner wanted to pull up high rises in it`s
place, but well connecteddenizens of the community saved the day.