The same person watched for fires, and summoned the public
with his gong to aid in extinguishing them.
[The Rev. G. B. Farthing mentions (North-China Herald, 7th September,
1884) at T'ai-yuen fu the remains of an object in the bell-tower, which
was, and is still known, as one of the eight wonders of this city; it is a
vessel of brass, a part of a water-clock from which water formerly used to
flow down upon a drum beneath and mark off time into equal divisions. - H.
C.]
The tower indicated by Marco appears still to exist. It occupies the place
which I have marked as Alarm Tower in the plan of Taidu. It was erected in
1272, but probably rebuilt on the Ming occupation of the city. ["The Yuen
yi t'ung chi, or 'Geography of the Mongol Empire' records: 'In the year
1272, the bell-tower and the drum-tower were built in the middle of the
capital.' A bell-tower (chung-lou) and a drum-tower (ku-lou) exist
still in Peking, in the northern part of the Tartar City. The ku-lou is
the same as that built in the thirteenth century, but the bell-tower dates
only from the last century. The bell-tower of the Yuen was a little to the
east of the drum-tower, where now the temple Wan-ning sse stands.
