Time passes, and silence reigns in the Drum Tower. Yet for nearly seven hundred years the largest drum in the Middle Kingdom dictated the rhythm of life for all of Beijing’s inhabitants. “The beats rolled like heavy waves in all directions,” I read in an old book.
The beats announced the regime of the night—that movement, trade, and crafts in public spaces were to cease, and that the city gates were to be closed.
“Every night guards ride around the city in groups of thirty to forty men to check whether anyone is out at an unlawful hour,” Marco Polo wrote toward the end of the thirteenth century. “Anyone found is arrested and thrown into prison.”
Behind the four walls of the home, however, people could do as they pleased. The Chinese courtyard house (siheyuan) was designed precisely for this purpose: an inner, private space that shielded its residents from the regulated night outside. Here, those who wished could continue to enjoy themselves with card games and other pastimes by the glow of the family’s oil lamp. The oil that gave it life was vegetable-based. Sesame oil was very common, as were rapeseed and soybean oil.
Drum towers were common in ancient China. The first were erected more than two thousand years ago. As important as the drum towers were the bell towers, which announced the beginning of a new day. Then the city gates were reopened, and people streamed out into the streets.
Beijing’s towering Drum Tower and Bell Tower were inaugurated in 1272, three years before Marco Polo rode into the city. Several decades earlier the Mongols had stormed through the city gates and seized the imperial throne. Even so, Beijing retained an unmistakably Chinese character, with architecture reflecting the Chinese longing for order and harmony.
The Venetian observed that the city was square and surrounded by a high wall with a large number of gates. The Chinese called it Dadu, while the Mongols referred to it as Khanbalik (the Khan’s city). Today’s experts believe it covered an area of between fifty and sixty square kilometers. Seen from the towers, it could resemble a giant chessboard.
“I can assure you that the streets are so wide and straight that from the top of the wall above one of the gates one can see all the way to the gate on the opposite side,” Marco Polo continued. “The city is full of beautiful mansions, inns, and dwellings, and along every main street there are stalls and shops of every kind.”
According to more recent estimates, Khanbalik may have had up to a million inhabitants. The Venetian contented himself with noting that the city had so many people that no one could count them. Even more lived in the suburbs beyond the walls, but life there was not as safe.
“All the prostitutes live in the suburbs, and there are so many of them that it is hard to believe. I assure you that there are fully 20,000 of them, and all serve men’s needs for money.”
Within the city walls, however, perfect calm and order prevailed. The city and the country were at that time ruled by Kublai Khan, a grandson of the fearsome Genghis Khan. Among the Mongol Great Khans, he is remembered as the greatest. Kublai ruled from 1260 until his death in 1294. Under his leadership the Mongols conquered not only China but also a great many other lands. Marco Polo described him as “well built, neither too short nor too tall, but of medium height… he has a fair and rosy complexion, his eyes are black and beautiful, almost well shaped and correctly set in the face.”
Kublai Khan lived in his Mongol-inspired palace in the center of the city, which Marco Polo—by his own account—visited several times and also described in his book.
The Drum Tower and Bell Tower were erected about two kilometers north of the palace, on the same north–south axis. The original Drum Tower looked noticeably different from the building we see today. It consisted of a rectangular masonry base of gray brick and, above it, a wooden structure that housed the important drum. During the Ming dynasty (the fifteenth century and later) it was rebuilt and given more decoration, and under the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) it was embellished still further.
The drum itself is said to have had a diameter of 1.7 meters and to have been nearly as tall, with a body made of hollowed solid wood and covered with thick oxhide.
The Bell Tower lies less than a hundred meters north of the Drum Tower. It, too, has been rebuilt several times, each time with a view to bearing the weight of the 65-ton bronze bell. Unlike European church bells, this one was not swung but struck from the outside. Its massive thickness ensured that the sound could last for many seconds—ideal for an instrument meant to rouse the city to action.
But was it possible to hear the drum and the bell everywhere within the city walls?
Yes, for most people, say today’s experts. The houses in the city were low, most often only one storey high. There was no noise from cars and factories, and the towers stood on solid masonry bases along the city’s central axis. The signals therefore carried far, even if weather and wind could sometimes cause problems. The system worked regardless, because enough people heard them. Those who did not perceived them indirectly—and no one could ignore the consequences.
According to Marco Polo, inhabitants who broke the curfew risked being punished with flogging. The number of blows varied with the severity of the offense, and in some cases the unfortunate sinner could be beaten to death. Kublai Khan had a large apparatus of violence at his disposal, and each of the twelve city gates was, according to the Venetian, guarded by a thousand sentries. Here we should add, however, that the figures he gave often seem inflated.
Mongol rule lasted until 1368, when the Chinese once again became masters in their own house. But the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower remained standing, guarding the city as before—indeed right up until 1924. That year the country’s last emperor was expelled from Beijing, thirteen years after he had been formally deposed. In an era when modern clocks became common, the signals from the towers lost their significance.
Today’s busy tourists in Beijing prioritize visits to the Forbidden City with its impressive palaces. The circular Temple of Heaven is also popular, not to mention the Great Wall, which snakes over the ridges a couple of hours’ drive north of the city. Perhaps they need a reminder that the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower are more beautiful than ever, and that it is entirely possible to climb them and enjoy the view over the city. The Drum Tower is 47 meters high, while the Bell Tower is noticeably lower at 33 meters.
In 2024, Beijing’s “imperial central axis” was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The axis stretches from the Bell Tower in the north to Yongdingmen (“the Gate of Stability”) in the south and encompasses a number of monuments, including the Forbidden City. At the northern end we also find several of the city’s old hutongs—that is, residential neighborhoods of narrow lanes and low houses organized around intimate inner courtyards. If the authorities keep their promises, these remnants of a bygone era are also to be preserved.
Here we also find cafés and teahouses where trendy Chinese youth gather around their laptops. The environments feel informal, almost a bit rough, with exposed brick walls and recycled furniture. Long after darkness has settled over the city, live music seeps out from some of the venues. The mood is subdued. People sit close together and linger, for the commands from the towers have long since fallen silent.
The ruling Communist Party nevertheless maintains firm control over the city’s great and small alike. With new technology and millions of video cameras, Big Brother monitors his subjects from morning to night—around the clock. Today’s Beijing numbers more than twenty million inhabitants—and the city wall has been torn down. But that hardly matters as long as they are also monitored by their own state-controlled mobile phones.
Under such conditions, the average Chinese citizen is reluctant to challenge Big Brother. He or she may not risk being beaten with a stick, as in the old days. But torture is widespread in China, though not as a codified punishment. The phenomenon is thoroughly documented by the UN, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. The difference between then and now is that punishments take place in secret. Whereas the emperor’s flogging was the state’s open hand, today’s torture is the state’s hidden hand.
The next time you travel to Beijing, set aside a day to walk along the city’s central axis, a distance of 7.8 kilometers. As UNESCO writes: “This axis is an outstanding expression of Chinese statecraft and urban planning, in which cosmology, political power, and everyday life are woven together into one coherent spatial order.”
Begin your walk in the south, and when you finally stand before the Drum Tower, climb the seventy steps to the top. The drum you see is not the original, but a modern replica. If you are lucky, young men in historically inspired costumes will be putting on a drum performance that day. But beware: cover your ears!
