Beijing Drum Tower

Beijing Drum Tower

The Beijing Drum Tower is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Bell and Drum Towers consist of two structures—the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower—standing in harmony and serving their respective functions.

The Bell and Drum Towers are a group of ancient buildings located at the northern end of Beijing’s north-south central axis and are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. The two towers are arranged in a front-to-back longitudinal formation, exuding grandeur and majesty. They served as the timekeeping centers for the capital cities during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

The Bell and Drum Towers were public buildings in ancient China used for timekeeping. Originally, the bell and drum were both musical instruments before being repurposed for time signaling. The origin of these towers in China dates back to the Han Dynasty. Historical records indicate that as early as the Han era, there was a system of “beating drums at dawn to rouse people and ringing bells at night to signal rest.” During the Tang Dynasty, the capital city of Chang’an was a bustling metropolis organized under a system of walled wards (li-fang). Each ward was enclosed by walls with gates on one or two sides that opened at set times. A bell and drum were placed atop the main gate of the imperial palace, the Chengtian Gate, serving as the city’s central timekeeping device. The gates of the wards and the palace were opened and closed according to the sounds of the bell and drum from Chengtian Gate. In the Yuan Dynasty, within the Dadu city (present-day Beijing), bell and drum towers were also constructed just north of the imperial palace.

The Beijing Drum Tower was built in the 18th year of the Yongle reign during the Ming Dynasty. It is a hall-style structure erected on a high brick platform, with the base reaching a height of 4 meters. The platform supports a five-bay wooden drum tower.

The tower is over 46 meters tall, featuring red walls, vermilion railings, carved beams, and painted rafters, making it an imposing and magnificent sight. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower in Beijing are located at the northern terminus of the city’s central axis. Owing to their fortress-like architectural style and the distinctive form of their upturned eaves and winged corners, they hold significant artistic value and aesthetic appeal, becoming renowned cultural landmarks.

During the Qing Dynasty, it was originally stipulated that the Drum Tower would sound the time both day and night. However, after the reign of Emperor Qianlong, it was changed to only mark the two night watches, with two timekeepers separately ascending the Bell and Drum Towers—one to beat the drum first, followed by the other striking the bell. The timekeeping method followed the ancient division of the night into five watches, with each watch equivalent to one Chinese time unit (equivalent to two modern hours). The first watch (Ding Geng) began at 7 PM, the second (Er Geng) at 9 PM, the third (San Geng) at 11 PM, the fourth (Si Geng) at 1 AM, the fifth (Wu Geng) at 3 AM, and the dawn watch (Liang Geng) at 5 AM. At each watch change, the Drum Tower would first beat the drum, then strike the bell to signal people to rest. From the second to the fifth watch, only the bell was rung to avoid disturbing sleep. At the dawn watch, the drum was beaten first, then the bell, signaling it was time to rise. The method of beating the Beijing Drum Tower’s drum involved playing 18 fast beats, then 18 slow beats, repeated six times for a total of 108 strikes. Ringing the bell followed the same pattern.

The method of beating the drum was to play 18 fast strikes, then 18 slow strikes, for a total of six sequences, amounting to 108 strikes. The same method applied to ringing the bell.

At 11:57 PM on New Year’s Eve in 2001, the long-silent drums of the Beijing Drum Tower sounded once again after nearly a century—25 young drummers performed the piece “Drums of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Winter” (the score was composed by Zhu Xiaolin, principal percussionist of the Central Nationalities Orchestra). The drumming lasted three minutes, concluding at midnight on January 1, 2002. Starting January 1, 2002, the Drum Tower officially opened to the public. Drums are played four times daily, each session lasting 15 minutes.

Although the Bell and Drum Towers no longer serve their original timekeeping function, during festivals and holidays, the resonant sounds of the bells and drums can still be heard, forming a famous and iconic scene in Beijing.

(Text provided by the Management Office of the Beijing Bell and Drum Towers)

The Beijing Drum Tower is situated at the intersection of Gulou East Street and Di’anmen Outer Street along Beijing’s central axis. Together with the Bell Tower, it served as the timekeeping center for the entire city during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

This information is sourced from Baidu Maps, with the final result subject to Baidu Maps data.

The “evening drums and morning bells” helped regulate the daily rhythm of the city. This practice ceased after 1924 but resumed annually on New Year’s Eve starting in 1990. The Drum Tower is a standalone ancient wooden structure. It features gray tubular tiles with green trimmed edges, double-eaved hip-and-gable roofing, stands 46.7 meters tall, spans 34 meters in width, and extends 22.4 meters in depth. Below the eaves are single-angled, single-rising five-step brackets adorned with colorful paintings. The ground floor has eight arched gateways—three on the south, three on the north, and one on the east and west each. On the east side of the north wall is a side door leading to a stone staircase inclined at 45 degrees to the north-south direction, consisting of 60 steps, which then turns westward at a 45-degree incline with 9 more steps—making a total of 69 steps to reach the second floor. The second floor has six-paneled lattice windows on all sides, surrounded by a corridor about 1.3 meters wide, with wooden railings and 1.55-meter-high balusters. The floor area is 1,925 square meters. The third floor is a hidden level. The entire structure sits on a brick and stone base about 4 meters high, spanning 56 meters wide and 33 meters deep. Brick staircases are on the north and south sides, while earthen slopes lead on the east and west. The Drum Tower covers a total area of approximately 7,000 square meters. A pair of stone lions, each about 1.25 meters tall, stand in front of the south entrance.

The timekeeping drums were placed on the second floor of the Drum Tower. Originally, there were 25 drums—1 large drum and 24 small ones (representing the 24 solar terms of the year). Now, only the large drum remains. This drum has a diameter of about 1.5 meters, covered with a single piece of cowhide, but its surface is now scarred with knife marks, inflicted by Japanese troops during the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 (the 26th year of the Guangxu reign). In the past, the Drum Tower followed specific rhythms for timekeeping. At 7 PM each evening (“Ding Geng”), the drum was struck twice for a total of 108 beats. Thereafter, each watch was marked by two sequences of 108 beats until the final “Liang Geng” (dawn watch) at 5 AM. The drumming had a distinct rhythm, and even today, the saying “tight eighteen, slow eighteen, steady eighteen” circulates in Beijing. The Drum Tower once housed a bronze clepsydra (water clock), but it has been lost without trace. Historical accounts describe: “The bronze clepsydra of the Drum Tower was exquisitely crafted. Elders say it was a relic from the Song Dynasty. It consisted of four bronze vessels: the upper called ‘Heavenly Pool,’ followed by ‘Level Water,’ then ‘Ten Thousandth,’ and the lowest ‘Collecting Water.’”

Each vessel was equipped with mechanisms, and when the time came, the striker would hit the cymbal eight times per time unit, regulated by the water level. When the water ran low, it was refilled, and in winter, heated with fire. After the Republic of China, the Drum Tower was renamed “Mingchi Tower” (Tower of National Humiliation), displaying photographs, models, and artifacts depicting the invasion and looting by the Eight-Nation Alliance to remind visitors of the national disgrace. It was later repurposed as the “Jingzhao Popular Education Museum” and the “First Public Education Museum,” among others.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Municipal-Level Cultural Relics Protection Units in Beijing

· Fourth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units