What they are, and why there are two of them
The Bell Tower (钟楼, Zhōnglóu) stands on the roundabout where Xi’an’s four main streets meet — the exact centre of the Ming walled city, and the point every address in the old town is measured from. The Drum Tower (鼓楼, Gǔlóu) stands 335 m west-north-west, a longer, lower building whose arch opens onto the Muslim Quarter.
They are a pair by function, not by accident. The bell was struck at dawn and the drum at dusk — 晨钟暮鼓, morning bell and evening drum — so between them they marked the opening and closing of the city day. That is also why they are ticketed separately and why a combined ticket exists at all: two buildings, one job.
⚠️ You will see both names attached to hotels, a metro exit, a shopping plaza and a bus stop. “Bell Tower” in Xi’an is an address before it is a monument — if you are searching for something near them, put the word tower and the Chinese characters in together, or you will get a hotel listing.
Is it worth climbing? Mostly, no
Here is the thing nobody selling a ticket will tell you: the image of these towers that made you want to see them — dark timber, upswept eaves, gold light against a blue evening — is a photograph of the building. Buy a ticket and you are inside it, looking out at a traffic roundabout.
¥30 buys a modest exhibition — bells or drums depending on which tower, some Ming and Qing furniture, a gallery of replicas — and a balcony circuit at roughly the height of the surrounding shopfronts. It is pleasant. It is not the reason you came to Xi’an, and on a three-day trip it competes with the Terracotta Army, the city wall and a museum you have to fight to get into.
What to do instead, at no cost:
- The plaza between them after dark. Both towers are floodlit nightly and the open ground on the Drum Tower side gives you both in one frame.
- An upper floor across the junction. The Kaiyuan department store (开元商城) on the Bell Tower roundabout has floors high enough to shoot down over the tower — a vantage the ticket does not sell, because the ticket puts you on the tower rather than above it.
- The underpass. The roundabout has no crossing at street level; you reach the Bell Tower through a subway from the metro station, and the walk round it is free — the ticket barrier is at the base of the stairs, not at the gate.
⭐ Climb anyway if you like historic timber interiors, if you want to be at the Drum Tower for a performance, or if it is raining and you want forty minutes indoors in the middle of the old town. Those are good reasons. “Because it is the landmark” is not — you get the landmark for free, several times a day, simply by moving around Xi’an.
Tickets — and the combined ticket that saves students nothing
Each tower is sold separately, and a combined ticket (套票) covers both. The adult combined ticket is the two singles less a stated ¥10. The concession combined ticket is not — it is a flat price that happens to equal two concession singles, so a student who buys the combined ticket saves ¥0 and only gains the convenience of one transaction.
| Ticket | Adult | Student / child |
|---|---|---|
| Bell Tower only | ¥30 | ¥15 |
| Drum Tower only | ¥30 | ¥15 |
| Both towers (套票) | ¥50 | ¥30 |
Free entry for over-65s, and for children of six or under, or under 1.2 m, with a guardian. The concession fare covers full-time students, and children between 1.2 m and 1.4 m who are over six and under eighteen. Serving military and disabled visitors enter free on the relevant document.
⚠️ Ticketing is real-name, so carry your passport. There is no advance booking and no daily cap — this is not the Shaanxi History Museum, and nothing here sells out.
Hours — three cutoffs, an hour apart
The closing time is the least useful of the three numbers the towers publish, and it is the one every listing leads with. Ticket sales stop before closing, and the combined ticket stops an hour before that.
| Season | Open | Singles stop | Combined stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April – 10 October | 08:30–21:30 | 21:00 | 20:00 |
| 11 October – 31 March | 08:30–18:00 | 17:30 | 16:30 |
⭐ Spring Festival is the exception that is not a season change. Over the fortnight from Lunar New Year’s Day to the Lantern Festival, and over the May Day holiday, the towers run long-season hours — but the winter season itself does not move. Holiday extensions are announced individually and withdrawn again, so a set of dates you find quoted for “the winter opening” may be a past holiday’s.
⚠️ A note on where seasonal ranges go wrong, because it bit us. You will find widely copied listings that close the towers’ winter season on 31 December. A seasonal range that ends with the calendar year is almost always somebody’s assumption rather than something the operator announced — the giveaway is that the two seasons then fail to tile, leaving a month or three described twice or not at all. Check that the dates meet. Here they do: 1 April to 10 October, then 11 October to 31 March.
The drum performances
The Drum Tower runs short drum performances through the day — traditional pieces on the reconstructed drums, roughly a quarter of an hour each, included with tower admission rather than sold as a separate show. They are the single best reason to pay to go inside, and they are the reason to choose the Drum Tower over the Bell Tower if you are only climbing one.
⛔ We are not printing a timetable, and you should distrust one that is. The two published schedules we could find share no times at all: one gives six daytime slots, the other five including an evening one. The operator’s own site was returning an error on every page when we checked.
⭐ One thing holds without needing a source, and it is worth carrying: an evening performance can only exist between 1 April and 10 October, because the towers close at 18:00 the rest of the year. That is probably how both schedules came to be published — one is a summer list and one is a winter list, and neither says so. The board at the tower entrance carries the current day’s times, and it is the only version that is definitely this season’s.
Separately from the ticketed performances, the towers keep a ceremonial version of their old job: the bell is struck and the drum sounded at set points in the day. You can hear that from the plaza without a ticket.
Getting there
Zhonglou (钟楼) station, where Metro Lines 1 and 2 cross, comes up directly beneath the Bell Tower. Because the towers are the centre of the walled city, this is the interchange you will pass through repeatedly whatever else you are doing — which is the practical argument for not making a special trip.
The roundabout has no surface crossing. You reach the Bell Tower’s base through the pedestrian subway from the station, and the same subway takes you to the Drum Tower 335 m west-north-west. Walk under its arch and you are in the Muslim Quarter, which is where most people’s evening ends up.
⭐ For a first trip, this junction is also the best place to sleep. It puts the metro, the food street and the wall’s South Gate inside a short walk, and it is the departure point for the morning tourist coach to the Terracotta Army — which runs in the morning only, so being near it saves an hour you cannot buy back later.
Key takeaways
- ⭐ The photograph is from outside. Both towers are floodlit after dark and sit on a junction you will cross several times anyway. Paying ¥30 puts you inside the building you came to look at.
- ⭐⭐ The combined ticket is not a discount for everyone. An adult pays ¥50 instead of ¥30 twice. A student pays ¥30, which is two concession singles exactly — the saving is for full-fare visitors only.
- ⛔ The clock bites early. Single tickets stop at 21:00 in the long season and 17:30 in winter; the combined ticket stops a full hour before each. Arriving before closing is not the same as arriving in time.
- The long season runs 1 April to 10 October, winter from 11 October to 31 March, and Spring Festival borrows the long-season hours without moving the season.
- No booking, but ticketing is real-name — carry your passport. And plan the towers for last thing: eat in the Muslim Quarter through the Drum Tower arch, then come back out to the plaza once the floodlights are on.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Xi'an Bell Tower ticket?
¥30 to climb the Bell Tower, and the same ¥30 again for the Drum Tower — they are separate buildings on opposite sides of one junction and each is sold on its own. A combined ticket covering both is ¥50. Students and children over 6 pay ¥15 per tower, and their combined ticket is ¥30.
Is the combined ticket worth buying?
For an adult, yes if you are climbing both: the combined ticket is ¥50 against ¥30 twice. For a student it saves nothing at all — the concession combined ticket costs ¥30, which is exactly two concession singles at ¥15. ⛔ And in both seasons the combined ticket is withdrawn from sale an hour before the single tickets are, so a late-afternoon visitor may find only singles left.
What are the opening hours?
08:30–21:30 from 1 April to 10 October, and 08:30–18:00 from 11 October to 31 March. The number that governs your afternoon is not the closing time: single tickets stop at 21:00 in the long season and 17:30 in winter, and the combined ticket stops an hour before each of those. Spring Festival runs long-season hours inside the winter window.
Do I need to book in advance?
No. Unlike the Shaanxi History Museum a few metro stops south, the towers are not capacity-capped and tickets are sold on the day. The constraint is the clock, not the queue. Bring your passport — ticketing is real-name.
Is it worth going inside?
Honestly, for most visitors, no. ¥30 buys a modest exhibition and a view over a traffic junction, and the photograph you have seen of these towers was taken from outside them after dark. Climb if you like historic timber interiors or want to catch a drum performance; otherwise spend the money on the Muslim Quarter, 335 m west through the Drum Tower arch, and come back after the lights go on.
When are the drum performances?
Several short performances run through the day at the Drum Tower, roughly a quarter of an hour each, included with tower admission rather than sold separately. ⚠️ We are not printing a timetable: published schedules disagree with each other and the operator’s own site was unreachable when we checked. One thing holds regardless — an evening performance can only exist between 1 April and 10 October, because the towers close at 18:00 the rest of the year. The board at the tower entrance carries the day’s times.
How do I get there?
Zhonglou (钟楼) station, where Metro Lines 1 and 2 cross, comes up directly beneath the Bell Tower — the towers are the geographic centre of the walled city, so almost every route through Xi’an passes them. The Drum Tower stands 335 m west-north-west, a few minutes on foot, and its arch is the entrance to the Muslim Quarter.
Sources
Written and checked by the China for Travelers editorial team, 2026-08-24. The fares, the concession bands, the seasonal date ranges and all three daily cutoffs come from the operator’s own announcement text, quoted verbatim in Chinese press coverage; the operator’s website itself was returning an error on every page when we checked, which is why the drum-performance times are described rather than listed. The verdict on climbing is ours.
Seasonal hours and holiday extensions at Xi’an sites are announced and withdrawn on a short cycle, so we re-read this one monthly and date the page when we do. The one thing we cannot do from here is read the performance board inside the Drum Tower gate — that is at the entrance, and it is the day’s own schedule. If a fare or an hour here no longer matches what you were charged or told, tell us and we will check it — who we are and how to reach us.