The Bell Tower is situated in the center of the Xi'an City. It was built in 1384 (the 17th year of the Ming Hongwu Era) originally at the end of today's Guanji Street, and was moved to the current position in 1582 (the 10th year of the Ming Wanli Era). It was ever rebuilt in 1740 (the 5th year of the Qing Qianlong Era). In the past time, the copper bell was hung in the tower to give the correct time at dawn, so it's named as the Bell Tower.
Made of blue bricks, the base platform looks like a square, 8.6 meters high and 35.5 meters wide, and covers more than 1370 square meters. Its height altogether is 36 meters from the ground to the top of the tower. It's a magnificent construction rich in national style of classic elegance and beauty. It's totally made of bricks and wood covered with deep green colored glaze tile, eaves and rooms overlapping, each of the four corners has 4 peaks, hoppers, Zaojing (also decorations), woodcarving and colored drawing are decorated at each floor. The whole city will appear before your eyes if you climb the tower and look into the distance.
The new bell in the ancient city Xi'an resembles the Jingyun Bell of the Tang Dynasty, and was beat at dawn in the new Ding Chou spring, and from then this sight have reappeared in the ancient city. The original Jingyun Bell of the Tang Dynasty is now the state level cultural relic, it's the most famous bronze bell in existence. Its timbre is purely beautiful, and of delicate workmanship, and it was floridly decorated and inscribed by Tang Ruizong. Originally, it was hung in the tower to tell the correct time. In order to use the cultural resource fully, the Bureau of the Xi'an Cultural Relic made a bell resembling the Jingyun Bell. Its total height is 2.45 meters, weight 6.5 tons, and the outside diameter of the bell skirt is 1.65 meters. Besides the sculpt, grain decoration and inscription of the new one are all the same as those of the old.
