1831, Ioakinf Bichurin reported that there were 94 Albazinians in the capital of China. Other Russian travellers noted that, apart from their faith, the Albazinians were thoroughly Sinicized and bore little physical resemblance to the Russians. By the end of the 19th century, their number was estimated at 1,000. The Boxer Rebellion entailed the persecution of all Christians and Europeans in China. The Russian Orthodox Church claims that 222 Orthodox Chinese were martyred on 11 June 1900, including Father Mitrofan, who was later declared a holy martyr. An Orthodox chapel used to mark the burial place of the Chinese Orthodox martyrs in Beijing. It was destroyed in 1956 at the urging of the Soviet ambassador in China. Although several Albazinian families found it reasonable to move to the Soviet Union during the Cultural Revolution, the bulk of them still reside in Beijing and Tianjin. Later history After the first siege of Albazin in 1685, most of the Cossacks were allowed to return to Russian territory at Nerchinsk, but nearly 45 of them decided to surrender to the Manchus. Many of these had native wives or concubines who were not allowed to leave the Manchu realm. They were sent to Beijing where they joined about 70 other Russians who had previously been captured or defected. They were enrolled in the seventeenth company of the fourth regiment of the Bordered Yellow Banner and given space in the northeast corner of the Tatar City of Peking (at a different place from the O-lo-ssu Kuan). This was a 'household' rather than line unit and had non-combat duties like bow-making. Some were used as messengers to Nerchinsk. Since most were illiterate they were of little use as translators or sources of intelligence. They were given an old Buddhist prayer house which was turned into the church of Saint Nicholas. The priest was Maxim Leonov who had been captured on the Amur in 1673 along with seventy other men. The Russian government was apparently unaware of the Saint Nicholas church, since, during the Ides mission of 1692 they asked permission to build an Orthodox church in Peking. When Tulishen went to Russia in 1712 he carried a request for a new priest, Father Maxim having died a year or so before. He returned with an archimandrite and nine lesser clerics (to serve a congregation of about 50). By the time of the Izmailov mission in 1722,