traveldk.com

For contemporary art the place to go is the 798 Art District, and this is the gallery that started it all (see 798 Space).

Close to the Temple of Heaven, south of Tian’an Men Square, this place is worth visiting for the museum building alone, which is the pavilion of a former grand temple complex (see Ancient Architecture Museum).

Part of the Beijing University archeology department, the museum’s collection spans 280,000 years, from the Paleolithic era to the Qing dynasty. As well as fossils and bones, it includes beautiful bronzes and fine ceramics.

Exciting art space in the grounds of the Workers’ Stadium. www.artnow.cn

Possibly the best souvenir store in town, filled with silks ceramics, jade, calligraphy, and paintings (see Beijing Arts & Crafts Central Store).

Housed in the 19th-century former City Bank of New York in the old Legation Quarter, this surprisingly fun museum boasts displays on themes such as the suppression of counter- revolutionaries and drug dealers. Famed police dog Feisheng is here – stuffed and mounted – and there are live transmissions from a roadside traffic camera. An interactive screen poses legal questions and correct answers win prizes: it doesn’t say what the punishment is for those who answer wrongly.

A high-ceilinged space well suited to large-scale sculpture (see China Art Seasons).www.artseasons.com.sg

The recently opened Railway Ministry Science and Tech-nology Center has a vast hall displaying 53 old locomotives, including some of the enormous black engines imported by the Japanese when they controlled Manchuria. The museum is some distance from the center of town, but for steam buffs the 30-minute taxi ride is possibly a small price to pay (see China Railway Museum).