The Zhongtang hotel is located in Xisi Beiertiao, Xicheng District of Beijing. It has a very long history. In Qing Dynasty, this courtyard belonged to an extremely important minister—Ertai.

There is a proverb in Beijing from the past, and it says "East rich, West powerful". It means that all the rich people stayed in the east of Beijing and all the people with power such as royal family and the government officials stayed in the west. So the east and west of Beijing used to belong to somebody really important in the Qing Dynasty.

Ertai is from a family that belonged to the XiangLan Flag in Banner Military System. His father and grand-father were junior officials in government. In his generation, his situation was even worse than them. When he was 42, he was still a government ordinary functionary with no power at all.

Because the family fortune declined, Ertai had to sell the original house that he stayed in and he then moved to Xisi Bei’ertiao (was called Shuaifu Hutong at that time). He did not realize that because of this move, his career was able to make a huge difference.

Ertai and his wife lived in the main room of this courtyard, namely present XXXX room. After his first wife died when she was young, he married Maizhu’s daughter who was beautiful and smart, only they didn’t procreate at all. One day when Mrs. Ertai had her nap, she had a dream. In her dream, an old man with white beard told her: if you want your husband and sons to be good, you must build a room in the northwest corner of this courtyard in which you can see the stars, in order to connect the sky and the earth to have a good fortune.

Mrs. Ertai told her husband about this dream after her sleep, and then they finally decided to build that room. The special room was built with high ceiling but thin wall, the ceiling was completely built with the glazed glass. You could see the sky and the stars through the ceiling. The special room did not exist in the traditional courtyard building at all, therefore all the neighbors discussed about it a lot.

Everyday Mr. and Mrs. Ertai wento to pray in this room at a certain time for a while. It did bring them good fortune later on. A year later, K'ang-his Emperor passed away, Yung-cheng Emperor succeed to the throne. Because of Ertai’s integrity and learned characteristics, he was promoted little by little by Yung-cheng Emperor. In 13 years, he achieved the position of Minister. His wife, Mrs. Ertai also had given birth to six sons and two daughters one after another during these 13 years, all of them married to the senior officials and dignitaries’children.

After that, this seemingly ordinary courtyard kept that special room and named it “Guan Xing Shi”. The main room which Mrs. Ertai dreamed the old man also was named “ Meng Xian Tang”.

Although Ertai moved in to a bigger courtyard after he had power, he never gave up this courtyard because he believed this one had given him significant opportunity when he was in his inferior position.

座落于北京西城区西四北二条的中堂旅馆，曾有一段非常悠久的历史。在清朝雍正年间，这套别致的小四合院是当时权倾朝野的重臣鄂尔泰的宅邸。

北京城有一句老话叫做“东富西贵”，意指居住在东城的多为大商人、大地主等大富之家，而住在西城的则是皇族、重臣等权重之族。鄂尔泰做为满清镶蓝旗子弟，其祖其父都先后在朝廷为官，但官衔都不算太大，到了他这一辈的时候，更是家业凋零，一直到四十二岁还只是一个内务府员外郎，相当于现今的政府办公室职员。

由于家道败落，所以鄂尔泰卖掉了原先居住的房子，搬到了西四北二条（当时称为西帅府胡同)来。他没有想到，正是这次搬迁，使他的事业有了飞黄腾达的先兆。

鄂尔泰与妻子正是居住在“中堂”的正房内，他的前妻早亡，续娶了大学士迈柱的女儿，是一位聪慧美丽的女子，只是一直没有生育。某天下午，鄂尔泰夫人在室内午睡，忽然梦到一位白须老者对她说，要想旺夫益子，必须在这小院的西北角设立一个观星室，上通紫气，下接龙脉，方能成就大业。她醒后便把此事告诉了自己的丈夫，二人商量一番，便真的在院子的西北角盖起了一间小小的特殊房子，房子顶高墙薄，天花板全部由琉璃砌成，可以透过天花板看得到天空和星辰。这在四合院的传统建筑上是没有发生过的事情，因此引来了不少邻居观望与非议。
每天，鄂尔泰夫妇都要在固定的时辰到观星室中祈福拜祭。这样做果然给他们带来了好运，一年之后，康熙帝驾崩，雍正继位，鄂尔泰以其才华横溢、为人正直受到了雍正的重用，十三年间一路升职成为内阁首府、保和殿大学士、加封伯爵，并最终于乾隆初年出任总理大臣。

而鄂尔泰的夫人，也在这十三年间接连生育了六个儿子，两个女儿，全都与当时的贵族和大臣们联姻，一门俱为权贵。

自此，在这座从外观上看起来普普通通的四合院中，就一直保留了观星室的位置，而鄂尔泰与其夫人的卧室，由于曾在此梦到过白须老者，也被取名为“梦仙堂”。

虽然鄂尔泰后来官位显赫，一家人也重新搬到了更大更豪华的院落中去，但中堂这套小院，他却一直未曾舍得放弃，一直保留在了自己名下。