Beijing has a way of flattening me. The roads are ten lanes wide, the history is imperial, the distances are brutal. By day three of my last trip I wanted something smaller and stranger, so I spent a morning in 798, the old factory complex in the city's northeast that turned into an art district. It ended up being the most relaxed few hours I had in the capital.

What 798 actually is

798 sits in Chaoyang District, northeast of the center. In the 1950s it was a state-run electronics factory, built with East German help, and the Bauhaus-style workshops with their sawtooth roofs survived long enough to be taken over by artists in the early 2000s. Factories became galleries, canteens became cafes, and the chimneys stayed where they were.

Today it is a few blocks of commercial galleries, small project spaces, design shops and coffee places. Some of it is excellent. Some of it is souvenir stalls with better lighting. That is what happens to any district like this, and it is still worth your morning if contemporary art interests you at all, or if you simply need a break from palaces and city walls.

Two things surprised me. First, how quiet it is early: at 10am the lanes are nearly empty and you can hear the cafe grinders running. Second, most of it is free. You can wander in and out of a dozen galleries without buying a ticket, which makes it one of the cheapest good mornings in Beijing.

Getting there

Take subway Line 14 to Wangjing South station and walk about 15 minutes, or take a taxi for the last stretch. The district has several entrances and no main gate that matters; just walk in wherever you land. Give yourself three to four hours at minimum. It is bigger than it looks on a map, and the interesting spaces are scattered rather than grouped together.

If you only see one place

UCCA, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, is the anchor. It charges for its main exhibitions, usually somewhere between 60 and 150 yuan depending on the show, and the big exhibitions are genuinely international standard. If there is a show on that interests you, pay it. Otherwise the smaller spaces around it cost nothing and change their exhibitions often enough that no two visits are quite the same.

How to spend the morning

• Arrive by 10am, before the tour groups and the photo crowds show up.
• Do a slow loop first without a plan. The point of 798 is stumbling onto something odd: a room of sound installations, a solo show inside a former boiler room.
• Check what UCCA is running and book a timed ticket online if you want it, since popular shows sell out on weekends.
• Stop for coffee halfway through. The cafes here are better than they need to be.
• Finish around lunch. There are decent casual restaurants in and around the district, so you will not starve.

A few honest warnings

Most galleries run from around 10am to 6pm, and some close on Mondays, so if there is a specific show you want, check its hours before you build a day around it. Weekends get busy, especially after noon, and the famous photo spots fill with people posing in rented costumes. Prices in the design shops are exactly what you would expect them to be: hiked. Street art is also thinner than it used to be, since murals get painted over and redone in cycles, so do not come expecting a graffiti wonderland.

Who it is for

If your Beijing itinerary is Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and then out, skip 798 and do not feel bad about it. But if you are in town four or five days, or you arrive jet-lagged and want a soft landing day, 798 is close to perfect: walkable, mostly free, quiet in the morning, and full of things that make no reference at all to the Ming dynasty. I have done it three times now and would happily go again.

One last tip: pair it with dinner in Wangjing afterward. The Korean food around Wangjing is some of the best in the city, and by then you will have earned it.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.