The
Bell Tower
 In
the center of Xi'an, at the intersection
of the north, the south, the east and west
street stands the Tower, and to the four
dirctions from it along the four streets
to the city wall stand four city gate towers.
The Bell Tower is a square-shaped
construction with the height of the 36 meters,
built on the 8-meter-high blue brick base
with for corridors connected together. It
occupies and area of 1,377 square meters.
The Bell Tower was originally built in the
Guangji Street 0.5 kilometer west of the
Drum Tower in the 17th year of Hong Wu period
of the Ming Dynasty (1384 AD). In 1582 AD,
supervised by the city governor Gong Xinxian,
it was moved to the present-day site. The
tower is five-room long and wide, together
with a seven-room surrounding corridor on
the upper floor. Three storeys of eaves
seen from the exterior of the building,
but the interior of the building has only
two storeys. The upturned eaves are supported
by colorful dougong (a unique of Chinese
architectural style). The whole tower is
a wooden structure with mortise and tenon
jointed without a single iron nail. The
three layers of eaves are covered with blue
glazed tiles, the beams and columns of the
upper and lower rooms are decorated with
colour paintings. The top part of the tower
is 5 meter high, with a gold-tiled roof.
All this makes the tower look magnificent
and grand.
The Bell Tower was then used
for telling time, and the bell was stricken
for 70 times each day. The sound of striking
reached far and wide. At present, the Bell
Tower is ready to meet visitors from both
home and abroad in a new and elegant look.
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