Red-brick Art Gallery

This guide to the Red-brick Art Gallery on Beijing's outskirts follows collectors Yan Shijie and Cao Mei, who spent eight years and nearly four hundred million renminbi building a museum on the far edge of the city with architect Dong Yugan, working entirely in brick. You'll hear about the skepticism the project drew before it opened in May 2014, and about Dong's insistence on keeping every brick whole rather than cut to hide a seam. Look up as you pass through the perforated brick screens that filter daylight inside.