The Forgotten Time Keepers of Old Beijing

When the sky darkened in the capital of China during the dynasties, the sound from the Drum and Bell Towers dictated the massive city gates to shut. The watchmen now patrolled the streets and coordinated their beats with the sound of chant and hollow bamboo clanged together.

All hutong alleyways had their own gates that would close for the night, when a strict curfew was imposed on the entire city, that made it difficult even for a midwife on her way to deliver a baby to get through.

For a native Beijinger, the rhytmic noices, that trailed the watchmen on patrol, were a sound of comfort telling them that no fire or attack on the city was happening, but for outsiders it could be difficult to sleep. When Lord Mcartney’s famous embassy visited Beijing in 1793 they hardly closed an eye.

In 2024 it is a hundred years ago that the Drum on Bell Tower on the very north of Beijing's Central Axis were forever silenced. when the last emperor Puyi was expelled from the forbidden city in 1924, many Imperial institutions were also shut down, among them the massive time keepers.

A german Krupp gun would now be installed on the city wall instead, that would be fired every day at 12 o’clock noon, telling people when to wind up their new modern mechanical clocks. The old buildings quickly found new use. The Drum Tower became an exhibition center with the first display being an exhibition about atrocities committed by Western nations against China, and the Bell Tower would for a long time be a cinema.

It is difficult for us today to fully appreciate how vital these two structures were in old Beijing, how the drums were originally beaten has in fact been forgotten, it is however as a testament to their importance, that both of the Towers are higher than any building inside the Forbidden City, and the only place in old Beijing that exceeded to height of the Towers was the Coal Hill north of the forbidden city.