Dazhong Temple, formerly known as Juesheng Temple, was once a temple in the capital city of the Qing Dynasty. Now it has been developed into the Ancient Bell Museum of Dazhong Temple and is China’s ancient bell museum. Precious cultural relics such as the Yongle Great Bell, gilded bronze bell, and Hongzhi Dao Bell in history can all be seen here. The gate of Dazhong Temple is located on the south side.
The temple area is not large, with a depth of about 200 meters and a width of about 80 meters. The exhibition halls are all distributed in the various halls of the original ancient temple. The former Heavenly King Hall is now the preface hall of the Ancient Bell Museum. After passing the preface hall, there are ten specific exhibition halls. You can visit them one by one. Generally, the visiting time is about 2-3 hours. The southern part of Dazhong Temple is divided into three areas: east road, middle road, and west road. The exhibition hall on the east road is ‘Reading Ancient Bells’, which shows the development history of ancient bells in ancient China. There are many large bells in history, which can be visited well. In the exhibition hall, there is also a small interactive game ‘As a monk, strike the bell every day’, which is very interesting. On the west road, there are two exhibition halls, ‘Built by Imperial Decree, Juesheng’ and ‘Golden Fire Flowing Light’. The former shows the glorious history of Juesheng Temple, the predecessor of the Dazhong Temple Museum. The latter shows the technology of ancient people casting large bells, which can be understood one by one. The middle road is the main building of the museum. It is divided into several exhibition halls such as ‘Echo of Ritual and Music’ (inside the original Mahavira Hall), ‘Majestic Quality and Utensils’ (inside the original Avalokitesvara Hall), and ‘Fantasy Buddhist Sound’ (inside the original Sutra Depository). It shows the types and representative meanings of ancient bells. Sometimes there will be on-site performances of musical bells. If you are lucky, you can visit them. In the backyard on the north side of Dazhong Temple is the most important place in the entire museum, the Great Bell Tower. Inside, the treasure of the town hall, the Yongle Great Bell, is collected. There are a total of 230,000 characters of Buddhist scriptures and mantras engraved on this great bell. It is a high-level casting in the Ming Dynasty and also a precious cultural relic of the country. You must not miss it when you come here. Now, through multimedia technology, every character on the bell is scanned and can be viewed one by one through projection. In addition, there are three exhibition halls, ‘Resounding Bell Rhythm’, ‘Poetic Rhythm and Bell Sound’, and ‘Foreign Bells’, all of which can be visited one by one. Especially the ‘Foreign Bells’ exhibition hall shows a unique European carillon and can be visited well. Opening hours: Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 09:00 to 17:00 all year round; closed all day on Monday all year round. Preferential policies: Minors: under 18 years old (excluding), with valid certificates, free of charge. Seniors: 60 years old (including) and above, with valid certificates, free of charge. Military personnel: Active-duty soldiers, retired soldiers, disabled soldiers (including officers), active-duty firefighters, free of charge. Disabled people: With valid certificates, free of charge. Medical staff: Front-line prevention and control medical workers, free of charge. Supplementary note: The above free groups must make real-name reservations. Then, exchange tickets with valid certificates on site and enter the museum.
