A big bell was suspended at the Nine-Pavilion Bell Garden. It was made in 1995 by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Big Bell Temple Museum to mark the 3,040th anniversary of the founding of Beijing as a city. Beijing has a long history. According to textual research, the founding of Beijing as a city should date back to the time when King Wu of the Zhou vanquished the Shang and set up the fiefdoms of Yan and Ji. Specialists employed astronomical and other scientific means and carried out a meticulous study of historical data on the Western Zhou Dynasty to conclude that the event took place in 1045 BC.  More than three thousand years have passed and Beijing has become one of the metropolises in the world and the political and cultural center of China.   

The bell is 1.90 meters in height, 1.09 meters in rim diameter and 1,126 kilograms in weight. An inscription on the bell reads: "The Bell Marking the 3,040th Anniversary of the Founding of Beijing."