For the guardsmen of the Fire Brigade, the process of putting out fires was not as simple as it sounds. The large copper and iron tanks before the gates to the Forbidden City were their fire hydrants. Known as menhai (sea before the door), the water tanks can store over 3,000 litres of water. There are a total of 308 of these tanks, including 18 of them which are gilded in gold, located along the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony and Gate of Heavenly Purity. Beneath each menhai is a stone pedestal on which a fire can be lit to ensure that the water does not freeze in the cold Beijing winter.

Another firefighting tool was widely used during the Qing dynasty besides the menhai – a pumping device called the jitong (surge barrel), also known as the “water dragon”. There were two types of pumps: accident pumps and Western-style pumps. In the early Qing dynasty, accident pumps were mostly made by the Imperial Workshop; in the late Qing dynasty, the Imperial Workshop only made Western-style pumps, and the firefighters mainly used accident pumps made by foreign firms in the private sector.