Drum Tower: Drum Performances and Rooftop Hutong Views
Sixty-nine steep steps up Beijing's old timekeeper, with the finest hutong rooftop panorama in the city at the top.
Duration
45-60 minutes
Cost
¥20 ($2.80); combined Drum + Bell Tower ticket ¥30 ($4.20)
Hours
09:30-18:00 (ticket sales end 18:00, last entry 18:20); closed some Mondays for maintenance
Booking
No booking needed
The Drum Tower (鼓楼, Gǔlóu) and its partner the Bell Tower (钟楼, Zhōnglóu) ran Beijing's clock for five centuries — drums beaten at dusk, bells rung at dawn, the whole city's routine set by sound. The tower you climb today is a Ming structure rebuilt over Yuan foundations, with a rack of replica drums upstairs and one battered original, its skin slashed by Eight-Nation Alliance bayonets in 1900, kept behind glass.
Honestly, the drum performance is short and touristy: a couple of minutes of synchronised booming from young performers in costume. The reason to come is the balcony. From up there you look straight down onto grey-tiled hutong roofs, courtyard trees, laundry, air-conditioning units and old men on stools — a layer of Beijing you cannot see from street level anywhere else. It is the clearest possible demonstration of how the city was actually built before the tower blocks arrived.
The plaza between the two towers is a good place to sit afterwards. The pedestrianised stretch of Di'anmen Outer Street south of the tower has been polished up with cafés and craft shops, but duck west into Yandai Xiejie (烟袋斜街) or the alleys around Mao'er Hutong and it gets scruffier and more real within a block.
Nearest metro: Shichahai (什刹海) on Line 8, Exit A2, a two-minute walk, or Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷) on Lines 6 and 8, about 10 minutes east. Combine with an evening around Houhai lake, five minutes west on foot.
Practical tips
- Drum performances run roughly hourly from 09:30 to 16:45 and last only a few minutes — check the board at the ticket office and time your climb.
- The staircase is 69 steep, narrow wooden steps with a rope handrail; there is no lift and it is not suitable for limited mobility.
- Buy the ¥30 combined ticket only if you actually want the Bell Tower too — it is a quieter, emptier climb 100m north.
- The north-facing balcony frames the Bell Tower; the south-facing side looks down the Central Axis toward the Forbidden City.
- Tickets are sold at the gate and rarely sell out, but the top platform is small and jams up around midday tour slots.