evidence: In 1858, a weakening Manchu China was forced to cede Manchuria north of the Amur to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun, except for a small region known as the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River (江東六十四屯|s=江东六十四屯, Jiāngdōng Liùshísì Tún), an area of 3,600 km² which had a majority of Chinese residents and was still designated as under the administration of China. By the nineteenth century, Manchu rule had become increasingly sinicized and, along with other borderlands of the Chinese Empire such as Mongolia and Tibet, came under the influence of colonial powers. Britain had aspirations in Tibet, France in Hainan and Germany in Shantung, while Russia encroached upon Turkestan and Outer Mongolia.