Silk Road Photo Gallery - MOCA Yinchuan

Set far out from the city centre close to the airport, this architectural masterpiece is a good fit for the contemporary art exhibitions inside. However, I don't understand why they built it so far away in the middle of nowhere. No trains or buses serve it, so you have to call a Didi and hope there is one nearby when you leave.

MOCA occupies a 4-storey building with a white exterior wall that wrinkles like the landscape shaped by the geological forces.

Arriving late in the afternoon, I rushed through the exhibitions noting their closing time. These types of museums would normally show things that I can't understand, a type of stimulation to work up an appetite for dinner.

Then I headed up the ramp to continue upstairs.

Early European-style Chinese landscape paintings began with imitation and replication in the mid to late 18th century, satisfying European admiration and demand for these products. There were oil paintings and watercolours of Chinese scenic spots around the Pearl River Delta, such as trading ports and pagodas. With trade far away on the east coast, I was surprised this museum had a good collection of paintings on the topic.

Trade was primarily done by ships. Western ship owners and captains often commissioned Western painters for portraits of their ships sailing to China, featuring them in the port where they docked.