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 The
Drum and Bell towers are located at the northern end of the central line
of the Beijing inner city. There are two
towers in this area. The front one is Drums Tower and the back one is
the Bell Tower.
The towers are magnificent and splendid.
The Drum Tower was built
in1272.. It is a two-story building made of wood with a height of 47
meters.
Bells and drums were musical instruments in ancient China. Later they
were used to tell time and became watches for the officials and common
people as well.
IN Yuan,
Ming and Qing Dynasty, the towers were the timing center of Beijing. The
bells were beaten every morning. and the Drums were beaten every
evening. In the
Qing Dynasty, the hours were marked at night beginning at 7:00 p.m., a
procedure that was popularly called "setting the watch."
The sound
can be heard miles away.
Although the Bell and Drum Towers have lost their function of telling
time (The function was completely lost in 1924 when the last emperor of
the Qing Dynasty was forced to leave the Forbidden City), you can still
hear the rings of these ancient timepieces even now.
In
the 1980s, after restoration the Bell and Drum Towers were opened to
tourists.
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