Ancient Bell Tower

Ancient Bell Tower

The Ancient Bell Tower is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Fujian Province.

The Ancient Bell Tower is situated in the middle of the pedestrian street at Wenxian Neighborhood Committee, Zhenhai Subdistrict Office, Licheng District. Originally constructed in the eighth year of the Taiping Xingguo era of the Song Dynasty (983), it served as the gate tower of the inner city. In the sixth year of the Shaoxing era (1136), it was destroyed by fire and was later rebuilt by Liu Deng, the military governor. During the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty (1522–1566), it was burned down during the Wokou incursions, and was reconstructed in the fifth year of the Longqing era (1571) by Wu Shiqing, who also inscribed the plaque “Hulan Xiong Zhen” (Mighty Town of Hulu and Lan). In the ninth year of the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty (1670), Mu Dayan, the prefect, carried out renovations, but it was burned again in the 31st year of Kangxi (1692). In the 36th year of Kangxi (1697), Bian Yongjia, the prefect, rebuilt it and painted the trigram Kan above the gate archway to ward off fire. During the Jiaqing era (1796–1820), Ma Kuibi, the prefect, renovated it and inscribed the gate plaque. The existing structure is a three-tiered tower building, covering an area of 1,250 square meters, facing south with a height of 16 meters. The stone base platform is 50 meters long and 25 meters wide. The eastern and western ends of the platform originally had 3–4 meter-long “outstretched arms” extending southward, though only 1.5 meters remain today. The gate tunnel is 8.8 meters deep, with 15 crossbeams overhead. The sides of the tunnel are built with layered stone projections, topped with 5-meter-long stone beams. Each of the two gate tunnels is 5.4 meters wide, with an arch thickness of 3.1 meters and a height of 4 meters. The wooden structure on the second floor of the stone platform was converted from a city tower into a bell tower after the Southern Song Dynasty. The tower has nine bays in width and five in depth (with eight sets of rafters), featuring a post-and-lintel wooden frame, double-eave hip-and-gable roof, and large bracket sets. There are corridors on the second floor at the front and back, and the third-floor corridor is equipped with brick-and-stone railings. The Ancient Bell Tower was designated as a Fujian Provincial Cultural Heritage Site in 1985.

Wenxian Community: Wenxian Community belongs to Zhenhai Subdistrict Office and is named after the wooden archway inscribed with “Wenxian Mingbang” (Famed Land of Literature) within its jurisdiction. It borders Fengshan Community to the east and south, borders Taiping Community of Chengxiang District to the west, and extends to Changshou Community to the north. The community covers a total area of 0.3 square kilometers, with 1,619 households and a total population of 6,063, including 4,076 registered residents and 1,987 migrants. It comprises 11 villager groups. The area features five bustling main streets: Shengli North Street, Dongda Road, Shizijie (Cross Street), Wenxian East Road, and County Lane, known as the antique street. The district is located in a thriving commercial area with convenient transportation... More details about Wenxian Community++