is a brand new gallery/retail/events zone inside the freshly built "Culture & Creative Park" at 77 Meishuguan Hou Jie. The 77 C&C Park is an initiative of the Dongcheng district government. They've repurposed a group of buildings previously used as an offset printing factory into a cluster of film production, web design, and other creative industry offices. The center of the park is dominated by a massive theater space still under construction. That will open on April 17. Next to it, at the base of the print factory's giant smokestack, is Meridian Space. Meridian Space soft-opened a few weeks ago, but it's still rough around the edges. To explain the near constant throb of power saws in the background, co-founders Dorian Cavé and Mao Yimin (Momo) unreel a litany of additions and renovations they still hope to complete before the official opening party next weekend. But the scope and scale of what Meridian already has going on is impressive, unique in Beijing. This is what you're looking at when you enter Meridian. The ground floor holds a small, airy bar/cafe and the main events space, which doubles as a retail gallery. For now the cafe's specialty is, naturally, coffee drinks, which are priced fairly and made with an eye to quality on an Italian machine. The events space includes a small, powerful sound system, a projector + screen, and plenty of empty room. One of the walls is covered by the Green Box Project, one of Meridian's many ongoing initiatives. The idea is simple: anyone can put their stuff in the green boxes and Meridian will sell it for a 30% commission. Community retail. At the moment the green boxes are filled with all kinds of cool things: Yunnan coffee, used books, prints by local graphic designers, Rod Stewart Japan-issue vinyl, like 500 Omnipotent Youth Society CDs, artisanal tea sets... The concept here is that everything you can see, you can buy. Meridian has some of their own gear in there, like their Fairy Tales of the World folklore translation series. Even the furniture will be for sale: they're working with a Beijing-based German designer on a series of sofas, tables, and chairs that will eventually be up for grabs in the display room. The art on the walls, of course, is also for sale. Much of it is by abstract painter Xiong Liang, who is the subject of a monograph to be published by Meridian later in the year. There are also some fixed gear bikes lying around... Cavé says the space will host cycling events to promote environmental awareness. That's another ongoing initiative. The second floor consists of what Meridian calls their Workshop and Studio. It's basically a few long co-working rooms, and a second gallery space that will be used for exhibitions and small events. Well, that's pretty much it. Oh, wait… almost forgot. Meridian has access to these huge rooftop terraces: I can hear the gears turning in your head from here, and the Meridian team is way ahead of you: summertime BBQs already in the works. They're also in the process of gutting this humongous smokestack, which technically falls within the Meridian lease. Plan is to install a spiral staircase and make it another gallery. Wild. So that's it. A lot to register. Meridian Space is definitely a work in progress, bolts still showing. Doubt that will change much, as Cavé and Momo have several years'-worth planned right out of the gate: a book on cycling culture, a music documentary, a cinema club. They even plan to colonize the theater next door for especially large events, after it finishes its two-month opening run of Beijing/Taipei Cross-Strait drama this summer. Something to check out. *** Meridian Space is located within the C&C Park at 77 Meishuguan Hou Jie. It's currently open 10am-7pm, Tuesday through Sunday. Find more information — including private party booking contact — in the listing.