Chinese Pavillion and Japanese Museum

After we wound through the Royal Laeken greenhouses Connor fell asleep in her stroller so Dallas and I wandered over to the Chinese and Japanese structures we had seen from afar. The Chinese Pavillion and Japanese Museum were both exsquisite. It felt like just by crossing the street we had traveled to Asia! I am not sure of the significance of these two structures. But here is what I could find online (www.trabel.com):

On the northern corner of the royal park two monuments can be seen, which are rather unusual for Belgium, but nevertheless splendid. After his visit to the 1900 universal Exhibition in Paris King Leopold II decided to have his park embellished with exotic monuments. He ordered the Parisian architect Alexandre Marcel to construct the Japanese tower and the Chinese Pavilion. The entrance of the Japanese tower had been built as the Japanese pavillion at the Paris exhibition by a Japanese carpenter. The woodwork of both buildings was made by specialists from Yokohama and Shanghai.