Situated at the northern end of the central axis of the Beijing Inner City, the Drum Tower was built in 1272 
during the reign of Kublai Khan, at which time it stood at the very heart of the Yuan capital Dadu. At that time it was known as the Tower of Orderly Administration (Qizhenglou). In 1420, under the Ming Emperor Yongle, the building was reconstructed to the east of the original site and in 1800 during the reign of Qing Emperor Jiaqing, large-scale renovations were carried out. In 1924, the name of the building was changed to the Tower of Realizing Shamefulness (Mingchilou).
The first level of the Drum Tower is a solid square terrace four meters high, 55.6 meters long and 30 meters wide. The front and rear of the terrace are pierced with three arched openings and the two sides with one opening each. The broad, squat multi-eaved wooden structure built atop the terrace is impressive with its red wall and yellow glazed roof. In ancient days, the Drum Tower was the time keeping center for the whole city and was equipped with bronze clepsydras (water clocks) and 24 drums that were beaten to mark the hours. Among the 24 drums, only one survives. Its head is made of an entire ox hide and is 1.5 meters in diameter. A sword score on the side of the drum is a souvenir of the Eight-Power Allied Forces invasion of Beijing in 1900. The four bronze clepsydras, which once functioned in the Drum Tower, were reputed to date from the Song Dynasty. Set between these four devices was a large bronze gong, which through a series of mechanical devices was linked to the water clocks and sounded each quarter of an hour. When the system of telling time with incense coils, which burned for hours were introduced, the clepsydras fell into disuse.
In the Qing Dynasty, the hours were marked at night beginning at 7:00 p.m., a procedure that was popularly called “setting the watch.” At this hour, the drums were sounded 13 times. After the watch had been “set” in this fashion, each subsequent two-hour interval was marked by a single drum beat. Civil and military officials oriented their lives around these time signals.
At seven o’clock in the evening, the drum was beaten followed by the bell to inform people it was time to go to sleep. At nine o’clock, eleven o’clock, as well as one and three o’clock in the morning, only the bell was beaten to avoid disturbing sleepers. At five o’clock in the morning, the drum was beaten followed by the bell to inform people to rise.
