Datong Bell Tower

Datong Bell Tower

The bell tower of Datong Catholic Church is a building with a history of nearly 70 years. Made from high-quality materials and featuring a unique design, it stands solid and majestic atop the “Watermelon Summit” of Changlong Mountain in the center of Datong Town. Shaped like a square pillar with each side measuring about 4 meters, it has a round archway and is approximately 20-plus meters tall, consisting of three levels. It is currently the tallest structure in Datong Town. Climbing to the top offers panoramic views of the beautiful scenery of Datong and unobstructed sights along both banks of Que River.

The bell tower of Datong Catholic Church was completed on August 18, 1936 (the 25th year of the Republic of China). Despite nearly 70 years having passed, its grandeur remains undiminished. It is widely known that this bell tower was built by Spaniards in Datong, but why did the Spanish build it in Datong Town, Tongling County? It turns out that in the summer of 1931 (the 20th year of the Republic of China), the then Nationalist Government issued “China Aviation and Highway Construction Prize Bonds” nationwide to raise funds. Each “dollar” could buy five bonds, with one winning group consisting of 5 million bonds. The first prize was 250,000 yuan, with several second and third prizes also available. Zhu Muye, a native of Qingyang County, came to Datong Town specifically to purchase goods. Coinciding with the fervent sale of prize bonds on the streets, he joined in the excitement and spent one dollar to buy five bonds. To his surprise, Zhu had extraordinary luck—not only did he win the first prize, but he also hit three “double prizes.” In other words, the five bonds he purchased belonged to two separate prize groups, and he won the first prize in both, amounting to a total of 500,000 yuan. Even by today’s standards, that was no small fortune, but the local agency in Datong responsible for selling the bonds couldn’t pay the full amount and only gave him 50,000 yuan in cash. Zhu then traveled to Nanjing, the headquarters of the prize bond issuance, where he withdrew an additional 100,000 yuan from the bank. For reasons unknown, the remainder was issued to him as a bounced check for 350,000 yuan.

Overnight, Zhu Muye became enormously wealthy, transforming from a small-time trader into a millionaire. However, trouble soon followed. As someone running a small sundry business, he was inundated daily with requests for loans and demands for repayment, and even worse were those who tried every trick in the book to extort money from him. Though winning so much money should have been a joyous occasion, it brought him nothing but trouble. He dared not stay at home during the day or sleep there at night, and he even shut down his small grocery store in Qingyang County’s little street, fearing for his life.

Zhu Muye, being a devout Catholic, after much deliberation, decided to donate all the money to build a large church. So, he made another trip to Nanjing and delivered the 150,000 yuan he had withdrawn along with the 350,000 yuan check to the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Nanjing, which was run by Spaniards. Representatives from the Nanjing Catholic Church then came to Qingyang County and Datong Town in Tongling County. They expanded the existing Catholic churches in Qingyang County and Datong Town and constructed several classrooms and the current bell tower.

The classrooms and bell tower of the Catholic Church in Datong Town were built at the same time as those in Qingyang County. Both were completed on August 18, 1936 (clearly inscribed on the wall of the Catholic Church bell tower in Datong).

After decades of weathering, the several single-story classroom buildings had deteriorated and been demolished. In order to protect the bell tower, the Datong Town People’s Government demolished several nearby residential houses in 2002, cleared out the miscellaneous items inside the bell tower, and developed an approximately 2,000-square-meter green space around it, planted with flowers, grass, and trees for visitors to enjoy. The Datong Bell Tower has now been listed as a key cultural relic protection unit by the Tongling Municipal People’s Government.

Datong Town: Datong is a famous millennium-old town in southern China, located southwest of Tongling City on the southern bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It faces Zongyang County across the river to the northwest and borders Guichi and Qingyang counties via the Qingtong River to the south. It is just 180 kilometers from Huangshan, known as the “World Park,” and 90 kilometers from Jiuhua Mountain, one of China’s Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains. The Tongqing Highway, Tonggui Highway, the Yangtze River Expressway, and the Hefei–Tongling–Huangshan Expressway all pass through the area. It serves as a hub and important passage into and out of the southern Anhui tourism region, acting as the northern gateway to Anhui’s “Two Mountains and One Lake” (Jiuhua Mountain, Huangshan, and Taihu Lake), and is also the site of the first gate of Jiuhua Mountain.

… Datong Town detailed information++