Big Bell Temple, Beijing

Compare Hotel Room Rates from different Booking Sites

Photo of the Big Bell Temple, Beijing

Big Bell Temple, Beijing
Author: Clithering (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Generic)

The Great Bell Temple, also called the Big Bell Temple or Dachong Si, is a Buddhist temple in Haidian, Beijing. It is celebrated for its giant bell, a 46.5 ton behemoth that is believed to be one of the biggest bells in the world (though only half the weight of the Mingun Bell of Myanmar).

The big bell of the Big Bell Temple is housed in the rear tower. It was cast somewhere between 1403 and 1424. Originally housed at Wanshou Temple, it was relocated here during the reign of the Qianlong emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The bell is decorated with Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Sanskrit.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the great bell is struck 108 times to usher in Chinese New Year. The sound could be heard 25 miles away.

Apart from the colossal bell, the temple also houses hundreds of bells from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. These are housed in a separate building on the west side of the temple.