On 6 December, Consul General Tang Rui went to Newcastle to visit the Beiyang Fleet Sailors' Graves and laid flowers.

The graves are located in St John's Cemetery. In the 1880s, the government of the Qing Dynasty sent sailors of the Beiyang fleet to Newcastle to bring back 4 cruises including Zhi Yuang Hao, and 5 sailors fall sick and died of fatigue from travel and of not being used to local environment and their remains are buried in the cemetery.  

In December 2016, the National Cultural Heritage Administration entrusted the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation to carry on restoration work on the Sailors’ graves, and the restoration was completed in December 2018. The Sailors’ graves became the first global crowd-funding project of the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation. 

Later, Consul General Tang Rui visited the Discovery Museum to check its collections of precious archives, such as the designs of the Beiyang naval cruisers. He reached consensus with Mr. Black, board member of the Museum, on carrying out studies on the history of the Beiyang fleet. Consul General Tang was accompanied by Mr. Qi Yongqiang, president of the Northern Britain Chinese Entrepreneurs Association for the above activities.