Custom House Clock—'The Bund', Shanghai, China
Posted by: Ianatlarge
N 31° 14.232 E 121° 29.040
51R E 355625 N 3456880
An impressive clock atop a historic building of Shanghai city.
Waymark Code: WMXGYC
Location: China
Date Posted: 01/11/2018
Views: 1
This clock is near a century old and is a feature of one of Shanghai's historic buildings, the Customs House building. This building, as the name suggests, was constructed to deal with China's vibrant international trade. Both the building and the clock are impressive sights from the waterfront. The clock face is white, with black hands and numerals. The clock uses Roman numerals.
* As the Chinese government distorts GPS the given coordinates do not match Google Maps.
From wikipedia:
The Custom House is an eight storey building on the Bund, Shanghai. Built in 1927, the building remains a customs house today. Together with the neighbouring HSBC Building, the Custom House is seen as one of the symbols of the Bund and Shanghai.
The most noted feature of the Custom House is the clock tower and clock. The clock tower offers views over the entire Bund and Shanghai city centre. It has four faces, each made up of more than 100 pieces of glass, between 0.3 and 1 metre (1 ft 0 in and 3 ft 3 in) in size. The diameter of each face is 5.3 metres (17 ft), with 72 automatic lamps. The clock and bell mechanisms are built according to the design of Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster. The bells were cast by John Taylor Bellfounders and the clock mechanism was built by JB Joyce & Co in England before they were shipped to Shanghai in 1927. It remains to be the largest clock in Asia. During the Cultural Revolution, the clock music was changed to The East is Red. The traditional tune (the Westminster Quarters) was restored in October 1986, when Queen Elizabeth II visited Shanghai. In 1997, however, on the eve of Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the municipal Communist Party branch ordered the music to be stopped. In 2003, the tune was changed once again to The East is Red. The clock's mechanisms are not in fact able to play this tune: the music played is in fact a recording played over loudspeakers, and not played by the bells.
Status: Working
Display: Mounted
Year built: Not listed
Web link to additional info: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Photo of clock.