Bell and Drum Towers
Lying on the north-south axis line of Beijing City, Bell and Drum Towers are visibly prominent constructions and represent the symbol of this old city. They were built in 1272 and rebuilt twice after two fires. At one period in history they were the time-telling center of the capital city during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The bell and the drum were originally used as musical instruments in China. Afterward, however, they were used for telling time. As early as in the Han Dynasty, there was ‘a morning bell and a dusk drum’. Telling the time by them played an important role in helping people live and work regularly when there was no other means to keep track of the time. As a result, the towers holding the bell and the drum became public architectures, and were widely constructed in almost every city throughout the country since the Han Dynasty. In the history of their construction, they are the largest and highest. Their layout is unique, in that they were placed fore-and-aft, not as the traditional sense of standing right-and-left horizontally.
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