Bell Tower & Drum Tower

西安钟楼 / 西安鼓楼

The city's centrepoint, lit gold every night

⚠ From 11 Oct closes 6pm

Hours

1 Apr–10 Oct 8:30am–9:30pm; 11 Oct–31 Mar 8:30am–6pm (single tickets until 5:30pm, combined until 4:30pm)

Tickets

Bell Tower ¥30, Drum Tower ¥30, combined ¥50; over-65s free. Same-day tickets on site, passport required

Address

The Bell Tower sits in the roundabout where the four main streets meet; the Drum Tower is about 335 m north-west

Traffic spins around a roundabout with a multi-eaved tower floating in the middle like an island: the Bell Tower, the city's reference point for more than 600 years. A few minutes north-west stands its near-twin, the Drum Tower, and walking through the Drum Tower arch drops you straight into the Muslim Quarter. Inside you get bell and drum displays and short drum performances, but plenty of people say both towers look better from outside, and better at night, when gold light runs along every eave and the plaza fills up.