Shanlao Hutong is located on the south side of Zhangzizhong Road. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called Shanqing Eunuch Hutong. According to legend, there was a eunuch named Shanqing who lived in this alley at that time, hence the name. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called Shanlao Hutong, which continues to this day.
There used to be an emperor's uncle living in the No. 7 courtyard of Shanlao Hutong, which was not Uncle Liu Huang during the Three Kingdoms, but the uncle of Emperor Xuantong Puyi, Aixin Jueluo Zaitao. Zaitao is the seventh son of Prince Chuxian Aixin Jueluo Yiyun, and the Empress Dowager Cixi forced Yixun to pass Zaitao to Zhongjun Wang Yiyi as his heir. Zaitao once studied at the Somi Cavalry School in France, majoring in cavalry combat, and belonged to the earliest foreign students to study abroad in the Qing Dynasty. Because of his superb equestrian skills, he was appointed as an adviser to the Horse Political Bureau of the Artillery Command of the People's Liberation Army. Zaitao has also been elected many times as a deputy to the National People's Congress and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, as well as a member of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.
This Baylor Mansion of the old alley of the mountain sits in the north and faces south, the original side by side with the courtyard of four roads, now there is only one gate is still complete, the original rockery, verandah and other scenery no longer exists, the courtyard has built a residential building, it is a veritable miscellaneous courtyard.
No. 7 Shanlao Hutong was purchased by Zaitao after he sold the Taobeile Mansion (now Fu Jen University) on the shore of Shichahai, and later his life could not be sustained, so he sold his residence in Shanlao Hutong and moved to live in the stables of Xiyangwei Hutong on the south side of Shanlao Hutong, that is, Baylor Province. Photo by Liu Dapeng.