This Chinese Pavilion in Brussels was not built for any international exhibition or colonial exhibitions, but the purpose of building this pavilion was relevant to international exhibition. In 1900, Leopold II, the King of the Belgians, saw the non-European participants' pavilions of the Exposition Universelles in Paris. The "Tour du Monde" (a group of buildings of different architectural styles) particularly impressed him. He then intended to build some "exotic buildings" in Belgium and commissioned a French architect Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) to build a Japanese Tower and Chinese Pavilion. In general, these exhibitions also revived Chinoiserie in Europe.