Bianjing Tower

Bianjing Tower stands where the main streets of the old town cross at Shangguan, the seat of Dai County in Xinzhou. A first tower was built in 1374, the seventh year of Hongwu, by the Ming general Lu Heng, Marquis of Ji'an, and named Jingbian Tower. Fire destroyed it in 1471, and Liu Chong and Cai Lin rebuilt it on a raised base, finishing in 1476 under the name it still carries. The present tower is forty metres tall, of brick and timber, and is described as the largest surviving wooden drum tower in China. Its brick base rises thirteen metres, measures 43.3 by 33.3 metres and is pierced by a stone arch nine metres high.