Dafen Oil Painting Village大芬油画村

Longgang's painting village: copy shops, original work, a free museum and ¥30 art jams

Dafen is a former Hakka village in Buji, Longgang, that turned into the world's biggest trading base for commercial oil paintings. It started in 1989, when Hong Kong dealer Huang Jiang opened a reproduction workshop here and brought painters with him. Today the 0.4 square kilometre village holds more than 1,800 galleries and art businesses, with around 8,000 painters living in it and more than 20,000 if you count the surrounding communities.

Walking in feels like stepping into a stockroom that spilled into the street. Ground-floor shops in old village houses are stacked floor to ceiling with canvases: Van Gogh sunflowers, Monet water lilies, landscapes for hotel corridors and portraits waiting to be collected. In many shops you can watch the work being done at an easel by the door. Painters have moved steadily from copying to their own work, and murals and graffiti now cover many of the alley walls.

It suits anyone furnishing a flat, looking for a commission, or wanting an easy half-day out with friends or kids. Prices are open to negotiation and quality ranges from production-line copies to serious original work, so it pays to browse slowly and compare a few shops before buying. The free Dafen Art Museum in the middle of the village gives you a sense of what local painters can do when they are not copying.

What to see and do

Visiting

Address

Dafen Community, Buji Subdistrict, Longgang District (深圳市龙岗区布吉街道大芬社区)

Hours

Village open access; shops and studios keep their own hours. Dafen Art Museum: 9:30am to 5:30pm, last entry 5pm, closed Mondays except public holidays (2025)

Tickets

Village and museum free (2025). DIY painting sessions about ¥30 to ¥60 with materials (2023)

Booking

Museum: no booking for regular exhibitions (2023); special exhibitions may differ

Getting there

Metro Line 3 to Dafen, exit A1, then about 500 m on foot

Phone

0755-8473 2622 (village/museum information)

Time needed

2 to 3 hours; longer if you do a painting session

• Come in the afternoon: some shops open late, and if you arrive at opening time you may find shutters down.
• Ask whether a piece is an original, a hand-painted copy or a print before you talk price, and bargain politely.
• For a commission, agree size, finish, deadline and price in writing (a WeChat message counts) before paying a deposit.
• Paintings travel easily rolled in a tube; ask about stretching and framing if you want it ready to hang, and about packing if you are shipping it abroad.
• The museum is closed on Mondays, so pick another day if you want to see the exhibitions.

FAQ