The First Parliament in Beijing was Located at the Elephant Stables
From Imperial elephants to political animals
When the emperor travelled to the Temple of Heaven from the Forbidden City, his procession was led by elephants. Some paintings even show the impressive beasts dragging the Imperial jade chariot with the son of heaven sitting inside.
The Taibei Forbidden City Museum has a picture of the elephant drawn chariot of the Jiajing Emperor in its collection
The exotic beasts were in use for at least 800 years and became part of Beijing life. Every summer in the sixth lunar month the elephants were brought out from their stables to shower in the moat. Thousands gathered around to see the long-nosed creatures play in the water.
The Site of the old elephant stables were still indicated in Frank Dorns famous map from 1936
But however friendly an elephant might seem it is never completely tame, and in 1884 the elephant processions ended abruptly after an unfortunate incident. During a procession an elephant went berserk, wrecking the jade chariot and throwing a eunuch against the city wall. After this, the elephants were in bad Imperial standing. They were allegedly left in their stables and not attended to, and one by one died from starvation.
The German architect Curt Rothkegel who built numerous in Beijing at the end of the Qing dynasty and early years of the republic
Years later, the area where the elephants had originally resided came to be occupied by a new species when the first National Parliament of China was built there. The Parliament was designed by a German named Curt Rothkegel. He had at first been assigned to build a parliament on the old examination ground during the last years of the Qing dynasty - this first building was planned to be twice the size of the German Reichstag, but was never completed when the dynasty fell.
Curt Rothkegel was first assigned to built a parliament twice the size of the German Reichstag
The republic soon settled for a more modest structure erected on the site of the former elephant stables. This building, located inside what is today the Xinhua press bureau compound, can be visited as the compound is open to the public. So, if you want to see the place where political animals replaced Imperial elephants it is definitely worth a Sunday stroll.