The Bell Tower 钟楼
The Bell Tower is possibly the most popular achitectural icon of the city of Xi'an. It was built in 1394 during the Ming dynasty and now sits in the center of a roundabout where two important avenues cross. In the old days people would just pass through the tunnel on their way in and out of town. As most renovated buildings in China, much has changed since its construction and what we see now is very different from the previous centuries.
The Bell tower marks the exact center of the city and was originally built in front of the Drum Tower, just like Beijing. But the city grew and the center of the town changed, so in 1582 the tower was relocated 1000 meters to the east (seems like 500, though. Did they move the Drum Tower too?), where it lays today. It is said that everything except for the base is original.
At night the Drum (in the back, on the left) and Bell towers light up. Surrounded by shopping malls and restaurants, the area is very popular amongst tourists.
You've seen the tower in the previous photos, here is the bell. This is NOT the original, which is at the Forest of Stone Steles Museum (went there! It will be my next post). This bell weighs "only" 5 tons.
The drum tower as seen from the bell tower. That's how far they moved the building. That other construction to the right of the drum tower is a mall with several restaurants.
The bell was used to tell time and to warn citizens of an incoming attack. Now it's just used sometimes ritualistically and more recently for selfies, of course.
As many places in China, the Bell tower also has it's own little legend.
In Ming Dynasty, several earthquakes struck Guanzhong area, thousands were dead and injured. Then a legend appeared: There was a great river flowing across the center of Xi'an City. A dragon in the river was always active and caused trouble, so an earthquake occurred. An official of Xi'an government believed these words, so he ordered the blacksmiths of the whole city to make a several thousand feet of long iron chain in order to lock the dragon and sink it to river. He then ordered 5,000 craftsmen to repair the Bell Tower day and night in order to use the tower to restrain the dragon. He believed this would suppress the dragon firmly under the river and so it would no longer be active and cause trouble again. After establishing the Bell Tower, earthquakes never occurred in Xi'an again.
- China Travel Tour Guide
The Drum Tower 鼓楼
The Drum Tower was built in 1380, so that's 14 years before the Bell Tower, for those of you who were calculating already. Inside this building you can find the biggest drum in the world, or so says the sign right next to it, stamped by the Guinness Book of World Records. Unfortunately while I was in Xi'an I wasn't lucky enough to catch one of the daily performances. They have a pretty nice museum on the third floor. Both the Drum and Bell towers of Xi'an are a lot larger than the ones in Beijing, most likely because of Xi'an's capital status for so long.
Boy looks down from the third floor of the Drum Tower. If you were wondering if the red lanterns are a seasonal decoration for the Chinese New Year, I can assure you that they are not. Even if you visit Xi'an during the summer months, you will be able to take a picture of the tower decorated with dozens of beautiful lanterns.
At the bottom of the Drum Tower there is a MacDonald's (seriously, it's right there on the left of this pic). When you get to the MacDonald's, look left and you'll see this: the Bell Tower.
This is the museum on the third floor of the Drum Tower. It has these huge drums (not the record breaking one, that one is downstairs) and several rooms with furniture of centuries past. I thought it was really nice because most places I've been in China, such as the Forbidden City, are mostly empty and we don't have an idea of how people lived. This was a nice example.
Right above a Starbucks and beside the Häagen Dazs place, is where I took this picture. To the right, a very popular dumpling restaurant, which to be honest, I didn't enjoy them that much. I've had tons of dumplings in China and I like them. Not these, though. To the left, the Drum Tower.
Last photo of the post. Can you tell already which tower this is? I've told you a thousand times! They kinda look the same, don't they? Well, this is the Bell Tower. No, wait. Yeah, that's right.