Burning Man Concept Black Rock City Comes to Inner Mongolia, Aug 21-27

The spirit of Burning Man will come to China this summer, with a six-day event slated for August in Inner Mongolia.

"We're creating Black Rock City in Ulan Buh," said Miao Wong, whose festival credits include dART, which will supervise project planning for this new event, along with the initial editions of INTRO.

Both the event and the organizer will be called Black Rock City (黑石城). The art festival will take place August 21-27, and Inner Mongolia's Ulan Buh Desert will stand in for Nevada's Black Rock Desert, which hosts Burning Man. Ulan Buh, known as Wulanbutong (乌兰布通) in Chinese, is about 250 km from the former imperial resort of Chengde in Hebei province, and about 500 kilometers from Beijing.

On Thursday, Wong posted to her WeChat Moments an article that she captioned "What we talk about when we talk about Burning Man," with an explanation of the event and its history, and a link to dART's WeChat account for more information. While the post implied that such an event might be coming to China, it provided no further details. Wong indicated to the Beijinger that she could not provide more information at this time.

Burning Man began in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco, eventually moving to its current location in the Nevada desert.  "Participants join in the effort to co-create Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to art and community," the official website says. In addition to showcasing various types of art, the event also has a reputation for hedonistic behavior that may not play here in China.

This year's Burning Man takes place August 28-September 5, for people wishing to go to both the China and US events.

Stay with theBeijinger.com for more information on Black Rock City as the event develops.

– Tracy Wang contributed to this report.

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Photo courtesy of Black Rock City