China’s ‘Big Ben’ to Greet Visiting Queen Elizabeth II

China’s largest clock, a copy of Big Ben that was rigged to play the Maoist anthem “The East Is Red” during the Cultural Revolution, began chiming the same notes as its London counterpart Wednesday for the first time in 20 years.

The New China News Agency said that the huge, 59-year-old clock in downtown Shanghai has been restored to its original condition just in time for the Oct. 12-18 visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

“I hope it will make Queen Elizabeth feel at home when she visits Shanghai later this month,” said Chen Maoxun, a technician who took part in the repair work on the old clock.

The news agency said the clock, with a diameter of 5.8 yards, was installed atop the Shanghai customs building in 1927, when the thriving port was home for thousands of British residents. Its chimes were damaged after the Cultural Revolution began in 1966 and were “replaced by 40 loudspeakers that blared out the tune of ‘The East Is Red’--a eulogy to (the late) Chairman Mao Tse-tung.”

The agency said the Shanghai City Council decided to repair the clock “as part of an effort to make the city quieter and eliminate the traces of the Cultural Revolution.”