One of Chongqing's iconic buildings is the People's Liberation Monument, also known as Jiefangbei.

The Jiefangbei area in the 1980s. (iChongqing file photo)

"The People's Liberation Monument was built to commemorate the victory of the anti-Japanese war," said Zhou Yong, president of the Chongqing Local History Research Association.

He continued, the Monument also signals the hard-won victory of Chinese national liberation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

This 27.5-meter-high building demonstrates Chongqing's city image and embodies the collective memory of Chongqing locals.  It's an octagonal building that stands at the intersection of Zourong Road, Minzu Road, and Minquan Road at Yuzhong District of Chongqing.  Its development history also comprises many little-known stories.

This 27.5-meter-high building demonstrates Chongqing's city image and embodies the collective memory of Chongqing locals. (iChongqing file photo)

The predecessor of the People's Liberation Monument

During the construction of the Monument to the Victory of the War of Resistance, the building of the predecessor of the People's Liberation Monument was equipped with an alarm bell, a searchlight, a wind indicator, and an azimuth finder on its top, but no clock used for time display.

After coordination, a Catholic church Zhen Yuan Tang donated a clock and placed it on the People's Liberation Monument top.

However, the clock could not work automatically because it was a mechanical clock. It needed to be wound up manually every morning.

Hu Mingfu was the first person in charge of this work of the People's Liberation Monument. He recalled that each clock in the building was hung with twine with the diameter of an egg, and a 100-kg iron weight was tied to the other end of the twine.

He had to grab the twine and pull it up to the position behind the clock on the top of the building. It took him about half an hour to pull each twine and more than two hours for all four clocks.

Of course, the clock could not automatically calibrate the time either. For this reason, Hu was specially equipped with an imported automatic winding watch with a gold strap by the Street Lamp Management Office to calibrate the time on the clock.

A revolution in timekeeping

However, despite his hard work, manual calibration would inevitably cause time differences among the four clocks.

In the 1980s, a quartz clock with better accuracy and without the need for winding was put into use. This was the second-generation clock of the People's Liberation Monument.

In 2000, a computer-controlled clock powered by electricity became the third-generation clock. It was produced by Yantai Tower Clock Factory and funded by Jialing Group, so the clock face was engraved with the words of "Jialing Group".

In 2007, Rolex donated a set of clocks, which was the first time imported clocks were used in public places in Chongqing. Unlike the previous one with a fluorescent lamp hidden in the glass clock frame and used to illuminate the clock face at night, this set of clocks applied the vacuum tube to light the clock face. This was the fourth-generation clock of the People's Liberation Monument.

In 2018, the contract with Rolex expired. So on February 5 of that year, a TANGLIN clock produced by Yantai Chijiu Clock-Watch Group Co., Ltd. was used. This set of clocks, also the fifth-generation clock, has been used until today.

After decades of evolution spanning five generations, the People's Liberation Monument's clock bears witness to the advancement of the times, the achievements of reform and opening up, and the progress of technology.