Dafen Oil Painting Village

Cottage village · Shenzhen

Dafen Oil Painting Village

Cottage village · Shenzhen

Longgang, Shenzhen, China, 518112

Highlights

Explore a vibrant alleyway district in Shenzhen, brimming with affordable art workshops, custom paintings, and quirky galleries showcasing colorful creativity.

Longgang, Shenzhen, China, 518112 Get directions

google.com

@atlasobscura

50 Obscure and Amazing Places to Visit in 2017

"While Shenzhen is the undisputed capital of electronics manufacturing, tucked away beneath the towering skycrapers is a more unusual claim to fame, the capital of mass replica art manufacturing. Dafen Oil Painting Village is the knock-off oil painting capital of the world, producing 60% of the world’s art reproductions. Here, you can buy as many Van Goghs, Monets, and classical Chinese landscapes as you’d like, or commission a painting of your own. In the galleries at Dafen Village, hundreds of budding artists work to recreate famous masterpieces to sell overseas at cheap prices. (Notably, in addition to the replicas, there are some artists who have independent galleries selling original work.) The village has a surprising small-town feel within the extremely urban Shenzhen. Walk along the outskirts and you’ll find chicken coops and kids running underfoot, as well as a cottage industry of all the painting supplies you could need." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/the-50-most-wondrous-places-to-visit-in-2017

View Postcard for Dafen Oil Painting Village

April Chan

Google

Originally a center for masterwork replica production, Dafen Village has expanded to include numerous art workshops and original artwork studios. While replicas are still available, visitors can now also explore a variety of original works, galleries and local coffee shops. It’s a great place to explore at a relaxed pace for a couple of hours.

Arti Soejitno

Google

A must go to visit when you are in China. It’s basically a market place for painting arts and many other arts in different mediums including some sculptures. Shops can be a consolidation of many different artists as there are thousands of artists in the country. Some can be simple and commercial, but some really is a great authentic artist. Love the overall ambience… visiting one of an artist friend there and got nice conversations on his tea table. Love the way they do arts while sustaining life… also found couple of interesting stores at back, where they use modern almost satire of famous art in the world into different way of presenting it in much more modern and contemporary… very refreshing. While majority shops are pretty standard, they also has some areas that are very nicely set like museums, collec of many different great quality products, some old houses and gates being kept as it was hundreds or thousands years ago… definitely worth the trip and highly recommend to visit.

Timothée Volpi

Google

Must must must visit while in shenzhen. It's a hidden gem. The whole place is very serene. There are like 50+ shops selling paintings and all of them are beautiful. Cars are not allowed inside so the whole village is quiet. The best thing about it is that it is not crowded at all or destroyed by mass tourism. It feels very authentic. Easily accessible by metro from the city center. I would say it's worth de detour of any china trip.

Eric Chng

Google

Lots of painting shops, very low prices (US$3?) for mass produced smaller paintings that still look good in the home. Also a lot of places where you can learn how to paint your own art (with guidance) for low, low prices. Highly recommended to come here on your own or with kids!

M. Véaigh

Google

There aren't many interesting things to do in Shenzhen, but this is one of them. Dozens of small painting shops with various different paintings. The artists are talented, though the paintings are often very generic. You will see the same paintings repeated again and again because that's what sells. You can also easily commission custom paintings for around 500-1000 RMB. I got one of my dog as the Tang Taizong Emperor.

Borislav Bajkic

Google

An unusual experience with Chinese painters. A place with a huge number of selling galleries of paintings and sculptures mostly made as copies of original world-famous paintings. I bought an original watercolor painting in a gallery, I didn't want a copy of a famous work, but there is enough of everything! The place itself has a positive spirit and perhaps in my opinion one of the most important places to visit in Shenzhen, and of course, if you are a lover of paintings and art, you will not regret it.

Soroush Torkian

Google

All sorts of artsy stuff including but not limited to calligraphy, pottery, oil paintings (what a surprise), and more! I was looking for a souvenir for a friend to take home and came up with the idea of asking around for people who can paint caricatures (讽刺的漫画). I got an "alright" caricature at the end but I was hoping the artist would exaggerate even more.

Kamal Kumar

Google

Amazing place where you can buy so many different types of paintings. Mostly replicas but really nice ones. Need to bargain hard at times but the paintings are very cheap and of good quality. Worth spending some time here when you are in Shenzhen.