Baoding bell tower

Baoding bell tower

Baoding bell tower, also known as the ancient mingshuang tower, is located in Yuhua Road, Baoding City, close to dacige, behind which is the bell tower commercial building. The bell is 2.55 meters in height, 2 meters in diameter and 17 cm in thickness. It was made in 1181 A.D. in Dading, Jin Dynasty. According to the dictionary of Chinese places of interest, the clock dates back 203 years to the bell tower in Xi'an and 552 years to the Bell Temple in Beijing.

The clock is made of pig iron, which is a traditional casting process in China. For thousands of years, it has experienced countless impacts and vicissitudes, and is still intact, reflecting the superb level of smelting technology in ancient China.

The clock is suspended on the second floor. It is supported by two wooden columns (also known as Optimus Prime) with a height of 8.5 meters and a diameter of 0.45 meters. At the top of the column, there are eight beams to form a frame. The clock is hung on the top double square. In this way, each beam is evenly stressed, which not only reduces the pressure of the column, but also plays the role of a fixed support. It has the anti-seismic function, so that the clock body can maintain balance, and the suspension is very scientific. The bell can be shaken with a touch of hand, which fully shows the superb architectural skills of ancient Chinese craftsmen and their ingenious use of mechanical principles.

Architectural features

The bell button is firmly fixed, and the bell head is tightly gnawed. It is said that Pulao is the seventh son of the Dragon King. Because he likes music, he makes it a bell button to listen to the bell and satisfy his desire. The bell has three layers, each of which has eight windows. The first layer has the regular script "long live the emperor, long live the important ministers" in Yangwen, which is powerful and powerful. The second window records the taboo names of the most important ministers of the state of Jin and the time of casting the bell. The first line: General Wu Lue's observation and Gong dada; the second line: General Dingyuan's knowledge of Yan Hao; the third line: General Shuntian's envoy; the fourth line: Emperor's son-in-law's Duwei Tang kuogong; the fifth line: Duke Wu (Xiaji); the sixth line: the 21st year's xinchou day of Dading; the seventh line: Bingzi's day and Wuzi's clock. There are 32 seated Buddha statues in the third bell belt. The lower part of the bell body is the eight trigrams arranged in different directions. The bell mouth is divided into eight petals by double arc pattern at the bottom. There are 176 Buddha statues, 136 breast nail patterns and other patterns on the body of the bell, which has rich cultural connotation.

There are eight holes in the top of the clock, so that the clock can not be broken when casting, and it can also play the role of resonance. It can not only make the bell sound good, but also make the bell sound grand and look back long. The magic clock can make different sounds up and down. It can distinguish a variety of notes from the sound. The sound wave fluctuates and the ending is as long as five minutes. It shows that the ancients had a high level of foundry and acoustics at that time. This kind of iron bell is rare at home and abroad, and has high artistic value and scientific research value.

Tourism information

traffic

Take No.1, No.4 and No.12 bus at the railway station, take No.8, No.20, No.28, No.51, No.61 and No.26 bus in the urban area, and get off at the bell tower commercial building. You can get off the expressway from Baoding exit of Beijing Hong Kong Macao Expressway by self driving, go straight west along No.7-1 Road, and then turn south into Lianchi street and get to Yuhua Road 50 meters east.

admission ticket

5 yuan / person

Address: Yuhua Road, Nanshi District, Baoding City, Hebei Province

Longitude: 115.49959232313

Latitude: 38.855340676213

Tel: 0312-5026947

Chinese PinYin : Bao Ding Zhong Lou