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Home: Big Bell Temple
Big Bell Temple, originally named Juesheng Temple, is located on Bei Sanhuan Road in Haidian district in Beijing and takes up an area of 30,000 square meters. It was built in the 11th Yongzheng year of Qing Dynasty (1733) and got its current name for a big bell casted in Yongle years of Ming Dynasty in the temple. Big Bell Temple was one of the places for emperors of Qing Dynasty to pray for rain. The temple faces south and is rectangular in shape, with temple gate, Bell and Drum Tower, Devaraja Hall, Mahavira Hall, Avalokitesvara Buddhisatva Hall, Tripitaka Sutra Pavilion and Big Bell Tower in order from south to north, and side halls, podium rooms and special rooms on both sides.

The Big Bell Tower, of which the upper part is circular and the lower part is square, symbolizing "Round Sky and Square Earth", is the core building of the temple. The tower stands on a stylobate built by laying bluestones and there is a octagonal "Scattering sound" pool with 70-centimetre length and 4-metre diameter in the bluestone stylobate, evoking resonance when the bell rings.

With a history of 560 years, the Big Bell of Yongle, which was casted in the years of Yongle followed the order of Emperor Cheng Zu after moving the capital to Beijing, is now hanging in Big Bell Tower. The bell, known as "Bell King", is 6.75 metres' long and 46.5 tons' weight with its diameter of 3.3 meters, and its lip is 18.5 centimetres thick. There are 16 kinds of Chinese scriptures and more than 100 kinds of Sanskrit incantations casted on both inside and outside the bell, 230,000 words in total. The bell was in Wasnshou Temple and moved to Big Bell Temple in the Qianlong years of Qing Dynasty. The shelf hanging the Big Bell is made of enormous wooden beams and has the tops of 8 main beams deviates inward to enhance stability. On the main beams there are 3 cross beams transferring the strength to main beams and distributing the pressure. Since it is reasonably structured, it has kept straight for 200 years. Now the Big Bell rings every new year's day, spring festival and big ceremonies, the peals can be heard 40-50 kilometers away.

There is a museum of ancient bells and it has collected all sorts of ancient bells with reportedly 400 types of bells. The bell treasured in Tripitaka Sutra Pavilion was casted in the Xining years of Song Dynasty with a history of more than 900 years which makes it the oldest bell in the Big Bell Temple.


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