With an area of 2,200 square meters and a building area of 700
square meters, the garden consists of nine bell pavilions and 32
bell corridors for keeping ancient bells with local features from
32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region to symbolize the unification of
Jiuzhou (the nine divisions of China in remote antiquity, now a
poetic name for China) and the unity of the Chinese
nation.
The Nine-pavilion Bell Garden was built with a donation of 3
million yuan from Mr Yu Yuen-ping, a patriot in Hong Kong. The
project was completed in 1994. Up to now, about a dozen of bells
have been collected or reproduced. They are from Guangdong,
Guangxi, Yunnan, Hubei, Shanxi, Hebei, Ningxia, Shandong, Sichuan,
Shaanxi, Jiangxi and Fujian. More ancient bells will be collected
from other provinces and autonomous regions to make the
Nine-pavilion Bell Garden a new tourist attraction at the museum
and a base for patriotic education.