A woman looks at "Provisional Landscapes 2002-2005" by Ai Weiwei at the Galerie Urs Meile booth at the 2008 CIGE

Stainless steel baby armor and milk- bottle weapons by Chinese artist Shi Jinsong drew plenty of second looks at the CIGE art fair in Beijing, just no buyers. At a New York show this year, most of the sculptor's works sold.

It wasn't a lack of deep-pocketed collectors who could afford the $10,000-$60,000 prices -- the fair's sales increased 40 percent over last year, to about $40 million. In China, collectors have mostly focused on painters with a track record of rapid price gains, or emerging artists with a similar style.

"In Beijing, only paintings stand out,'' said Leo Xu, director of Chambers Fine Art, which displayed the provocative, humorous works. ``Sculpture is quite new to the Chinese and it will take time for them to learn the value of the work.''

That learning curve may steepen as China's art boom lures more overseas galleries to set up shop in the Chinese capital and the country's economic growth and Olympic Games draw more business travelers and tourists.

In Beijing, the Dashanzi art district, better known as 798 after the number of a factory on the site, is one of the city's top tourist spots. Restaurants, boutiques and design houses rub shoulders with branches of overseas galleries such as BTAP and Faurschou.

Six years ago, it was a retreat with vast cheap studio space in former munitions plants for artists looking to escape heavy state control. The area received 100 million yuan ($14.4 million) in government funds at the end of last year, triggering a frenzy of construction in preparation for the Olympic crowds.

Great Wall

"Although different from the Great Wall and Forbidden City, the government is hoping that 798 will become one of Beijing's top attractions,'' said Grace Li Huixin of the Tourism Administration.

"It's like SoHo in New York City,'' said Yukihito Tabata, the Japanese Director of Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Beijing Tokyo Art Projects), who has been in 798 since its 2002 inception. Tabata was introduced to the area by Huang Rui, a member of Beijing's pioneering ``Stars'' group that included Ai Weiwei and Wang Keping.

It wasn't until 2006 that Tabata's gallery began to really sell. Now the space has more than a thousand visitors each weekend.

"This could be the biggest number in the world, but my rent has increased six times and the area is now a tourist trap,'' Tabata said. ``The galleries are just copying each other, only dealing in art that sells and not focused on an art vision.''

Foreign galleries are carving their own strategy now in 798, attracted by the rising visitor numbers.

Warhol, Picasso

Copenhagen-based Faurschou opened a branch in November last year. Its highlights will include Andy Warhol silkscreens during the Olympics and a Picasso exhibition in 2009.

"When in China, a certain education is necessary to train the public eye,'' said Kai Heinze, director of Faurschou Gallery Beijing. ``With wider exposure to art within the next few years, we feel the Chinese and Taiwanese combined will be among the top art collectors in the world.''

Ten minutes away by car, the more subdued Caochangdi art district is also beginning to attract overseas interest. New York-based Chambers Fine Art opened a branch here in September. In April, Tokyo-based Mizuma Gallery and Wada Fine Arts both opened there, concentrating on works by Japanese artists.

"Collectors are now focusing on Japanese and Korean artists because the Chinese artists are just too expensive,'' said Sueo Mizuma, executive director of Beijing outlet Mizuma & One Gallery.

Photographic duo Rongrong from China and his Japanese wife Inri opened their 2,600-square-meter Three Shadows Photography Art Center there last June.

Ai Weiwei Design

All four spaces were created by Chinese artist/architect Ai, designer of the city's "Bird's Nest'' Olympic stadium.

"European and U.S. collectors don't come to Japan, but they do come to Beijing,'' said Yumie Wada, executive art director of Beijing outlet Y++, a venture with Hong Kong gallery Triwizart.

Seoul-based Gallery Hyundai, which opened DoArt China here in September, offers a broader spectrum of works.

"We're emphasizing an international focus, not just Koreans but also Chinese and foreign artists,'' said DoArt manager Shi Shi. ``Many of our collectors are newly affluent Chinese in their 40s and 50s, some who live abroad or have repatriated. We're seeing successful Chinese artists collecting our foreign work in particular.''

Still, the terms "artists' district'' and high-rent rarely sit comfortably together, even in the anabatic world of Chinese contemporary art. As costs soared in 798, many emerging artists moved to lower-rent areas such as Jiuchang and Songzhuang.

Dubbed the "Wine Factory,'' Jiuchang started about four years ago in the district between Caochangdi and the airport and now has about 100 studios. Seoul-based Arario Gallery opened a branch in 2005 and the area has attracted many Korean artists.

Songzhuang Artists

The biggest draw for artists has been Songzhuang Artists Community in an eastern suburb of Beijing about an hour by car from 798. There are now about 1,000 artists living in villages in the area around a central exhibition hall, including Ouyang Chun. While the community was officially founded in 2003, artists have been gathering in this once-rural location since the mid-1990s.

Indonesian collector Budiardjo Tek announced in January he would build a private museum in Songzhuang in partnership with the Singapore Art Museum to promote Southeast Asian artists such as Putu Sutawijaya and Agus Suwage.

"We see the first sign of Beijing becoming an international place for buying art,'' said Hsiao Fu-yuan, director of Taipei's Soka Art Center, at the China International Gallery Exposition in April. "Global collectors are flocking to Beijing to buy works by artists of South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. They're not just looking merely at Chinese art anymore.''

(Lucy Birmingham writes on art and design for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)