The third annual Maker Faire Beijing took place this past weekend in central Beijing, right next door to the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution and catty-corner to one outpost of China Central Television (CCTV). Around 150 exhibits in three large tents sidled-up around the backside of the Chinese Millenial Monument, a sundial-topped building that housed additional exhibits as well as an auditorium for the presentation program.

The Faire was full of a good range of projects and even had a basement gallery for installation art. This irresistible environment by Seeeklab earned four Maker Faire “Maker of Merit” blue ribbons:

Some nice young maker projects just charmed the pants off visitors. There was the CNC chalkboard eraser (Can’t you just imagine the brainstorming session that led to that project idea??!), as well as a class’ experimentations in battery-powered walking and running machines.

There were TWO booths showcasing a range of machine tools (lathes, milling machines, bandsaws etc) that were sized down for apartment-scale making:

There were a lot of robots, as you might imagine for a Maker Faire in China. This set of booty-shaking robots dancing in unison was especially amusing:

There were quite a range of education-centric startups (many of them were robotics products), as well as some more advanced businesses. JD.com (the Amazon+Frys in China) showed one of their celebrated delivery drones.

This fantastic “maker family”—Jeff, Ray, and Elena Wu—showed projects they have been working on together (following the lead of Ray, the son) over the past few years. The gesture-controlled robot was especially compelling.

A good range of hands on activities (TWO big areas dedicated to 3D printing pens!) engaged the many families that attended.

It was a wonderful weekend for thousands of makers and attendees in China’s capitol city. Congratulations to Cissy, Ruolle, and everyone on the Gehua Maker Faire Beijing team. See you next year!