Big Bell Temple

An eighteenth-century temple in the northwest that now serves as a museum devoted to bells across Chinese history. Its centerpiece is a colossal bronze bell from the early fifteenth century, its surface covered inside and out with tens of thousands of engraved scripture characters. The bell hangs in a specially built tower reached through halls displaying instruments from many periods and regions. Ingenious accounts survive of how the enormous mass was moved and hoisted, making the temple a specialist destination.