It used to be a place run by artists for artists and lovers of art; but since the place has been heavily colonized by unrelated businesses trying to cash in on the hype, the place has gone seriously down-hill. It's a shame really, becuase there are a few galleries still trying to keep the art alive there. I visited it recently and found that Faurshau Gallery, Pace and Ullens all had fairly decent exhibitions. But there are hands-down way too many souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants there now, as well as galleries showing utter crap.

THey still have good galleries. I've been to several of the showrooms there. I'm not sure if I went to all of them but definitely the majority of them I did go to. I remember towards the end of the trip at the exit they had a gallery it was sort of weird it had some weird sculptures in the rooms. Near the entrance where I started they had a lot of paintings and also some neat sculptures outside as well. The sculptures outside are huge!!

Having been once I did feel it was abit touristy but it was good to look around and see some of the art around the place.

I have heard but never been to this place (people who have let me know) but many contempory artists have setup shop in this area of Beijing Songzhuang in Tongzhou district.