Beijing Drum Tower

　　The Bell and Drum Towers consist of the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, which complement each other and serve 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-back longitudinal formation, majestic and spectacular in appearance. They served as the time-keeping centers for the capital during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The Bell and Drum Towers are a type of public timekeeping structure in ancient China. Originally, the bell and drum were musical instruments before being used for timekeeping. The origin of such towers in China dates back to the Han Dynasty. Historical records indicate that a system of "morning drums to rouse people and evening bells to signal rest" was already in place. During the Tang Dynasty, the capital Chang’an had a bustling layout based on a system of walled neighborhoods (li-fang), each with gates that opened and closed at set times. A bell and drum were placed atop the Chengtian Gate in the palace city, serving as the timekeeping center for the whole city. The gates of each neighborhood and the palace gates were opened and closed according to the sounds of the bells and drums. In the Yuan Dynasty, within the Dadu city (today’s Beijing), the Bell Tower and Drum Tower were also constructed north of the palace city. 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 standing 4 meters tall. The platform hosts a five-bay double-eaved wooden drum tower where the drum is struck.

　　The architectural complex features a towering building over 46 meters high. With its red walls, vermilion railings, carved beams, and painted rafters, it is grand and magnificent. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower in Beijing are situated at the northern terminus of the city’s central axis. Due to their castle-like architectural style and the unique form of their upturned eaves, they possess high artistic and aesthetic value, making them renowned cultural landmarks. During the Qing Dynasty, it was originally stipulated that the Drum Tower would mark time both day and night. However, after the Qianlong era, this was changed to only marking the two night watches. Two watchmen would climb the Bell Tower and Drum Tower respectively—one would beat the drum first, then the other would strike the bell. Time was divided according to the ancient system of dividing the night into five watches, each equivalent to one Chinese time unit, or roughly two modern hours. The first watch began at 7 PM, the second at 9 PM, the third at 11 PM, the fourth at 1 AM, the fifth at 3 AM, and the dawn watch at 5 AM. At the start of each watch, the drum was beaten first, then the bell, signaling people to prepare for sleep. From the second to the fifth watch, only the bell was rung—not the drum—to avoid disturbing sleep. At dawn, the drum was again struck first, followed by the bell, signaling it was time to rise. When striking the Beijing Bell Tower’s drum, the method was to first play 18 fast beats, then 18 slow beats, repeated six times for a total of 108 strikes. The same method applied to ringing the bell. At 11:57 PM on New Year’s Eve 2001, the long-silent drums of the Beijing Drum Tower sounded once again after nearly a century—performed by 25 young drummers playing the piece “Winter from the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Drums” (the score was composed by Mr. Zhu Xiaolin, principal percussionist of the Central Nationalities Orchestra). The performance lasted three minutes, concluding at midnight on January 1, 2002. Starting January 1, 2002, the Drum Tower officially opened to the public. Drums were played four times daily, each session lasting 15 minutes. Although the Bell and Drum Towers no longer serve their original timekeeping role, during festivals and holidays, the powerful sounds of the bells and drums can still be heard, forming a famous attraction in Beijing. (Text provided by the Management Office of the Beijing Bell and Drum Towers)

　　The method of drumming is to strike 18 fast beats, then 18 slow beats, repeated six times for a total of 108 strikes. The bell-ringing follows the same pattern as the drumming. At 11:57 PM on New Year's Eve in 2001, the long-silent drums of Beijing’s Drum Tower were sounded once again after nearly a hundred years—25 young drummers performed the musical piece "Drums of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Winter" (the drum score was composed by Mr. Zhu Xiaolin, principal percussionist of the Central Nationalities Orchestra), with the drumming lasting for three minutes until midnight marking the start of 2002. Starting from New Year's Day 2002, the Drum Tower officially opened to the public. Drums are played four times a day, each session lasting 15 minutes. Although the Bell and Drum Towers no longer serve their original timekeeping function, during festivals and holidays, the resonant and powerful sounds of the bells and drums can still be heard, becoming a renowned attraction in the capital. (Text provided by the Management Office of Beijing’s Bell and Drum Towers)

　　The Beijing Drum Tower is located 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.

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　　The “evening drums and morning bells” helped order the rhythms of the city. This practice stopped after 1924 but resumed every New Year’s Eve starting in 1990. The Drum Tower is a standalone wooden ancient structure. It features gray tubular tiles with green edges, a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, and stands 46.7 meters tall, with a width of 34 meters and a depth of 22.4 meters. Beneath the eaves are single-angled, single-raised five-step brackets adorned with colorful paintings. The ground floor has eight arched gateways—three on the south, three on the north, and one each on the east and west sides. On the east side of the north wall, there 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 along a 45-degree slope with 9 more steps—making a total of 69 steps to reach the second floor. The second floor has lattice windows on all four sides, surrounded by a corridor about 1.3 meters wide with wooden railings. The balusters stand 1.55 meters high, and the floor area is 1,925 square meters. The third floor is a hidden level. The entire structure sits on a brick and stone platform about 4 meters high, measuring 56 meters wide and 33 meters deep. Brick staircases run north-south, while earthen ramps lead east-west. The Drum Tower covers a total area of approximately 7,000 square meters. A pair of stone lions about 1.25 meters tall stand in front of the southern entrance. The drum used for timekeeping, placed on the second floor of the Drum Tower, originally included 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 and is covered with a single piece of cowhide, though its surface is now scarred with knife marks, damage 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 had a set rhythm for striking the drums. Every evening at 7 PM (“setting the watch”), the drum was struck twice for a total of 108 beats. Then, for each subsequent watch until the final “dawn watch” at 5 AM, the drum was beaten twice for 108 beats. There was also a specific rhythm to the drumming, and even today, the saying “18 fast, 18 slow, then 18 neither fast nor slow” is still passed down in Beijing. The Drum Tower once had a bronze clepsydra (water clock), but it has been lost with no record of its fate. It was described as: “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 water pots: the top called ‘Heavenly Pool,’ then ‘Level Water,’ followed by ‘Minute Levels,’ and the bottom ‘Collecting Water.’ Devices were set up so that every quarter-hour, eight gongs were struck, regulated by the water level. When the water ran low, it was refilled, and in winter, heated with fire.” After the Republic of China period, the Drum Tower was renamed the “Tower of National Humiliation,” where images and models displaying the invasion and looting by the Eight-Nation Alliance were exhibited to remind people of the national disgrace. It was later repurposed as the “Jingzhao Popular Education Museum” and the “First Public Education Museum,” among others.

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

Beijing Drum Tower