In Suzhou, on New Year's Eve, people would sit up waiting to listen to the sonorous bell sound from Cold Mountain Temple, Maple Bridge. The tolling of the bell symbols the coming of the New Year. At present in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, at midnight, the sound of the bell will travel to thousands of homes around Suzhou. It has become the information of time for the people of Suzhou, from both urban and rural areas.

The bell in the Cold Mountain Temple may go back to the Tang Dynasty when the famous poet Zhangji wrote his poem "mooring at night by Maple Bridge", which spread far and wide. The poem goes as follows: The setting moon, a cawing crow, the frost filled sky; River maples, fisherman's flares, and troubled sleep. From the Cold Mountain Temple, outside Suzhou; The tolling of the midnight bell reaches the wanderer's boat.

Now the old custom of dividing years by tolling the bell in the Cold Mountain Temple on New Year's Eve has never changed. The ancient bell has become the symbol of changing times.