On 4 April, on the eve of Qingming Festival, Consul General Tang Rui of the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester visited Newcastle to pay tribute at the Beiyang Fleet Sailors' Graves. Qi Yongqiang, Chair of the Beiyang Fleet Heritage Foundation UK, as well as over one hundred representatives from the local Chinese community and Chinese students, participated in the visit.

Consul General Tang Rui stated that President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that the Chinese nation is one that honors heroes, produces heroes, and sees a steady stream of heroic figures, and that it is important to remember the heroic martyrs who made sacrifices for the nation and the Chinese people. At this moment, it is of great significance that we pay tribute to the sailors with reverence. The Consulate General stands ready to continue working closely with all sectors, including the British side, to effectively preserve the cemetery of the Beiyang Fleet sailors and promote awareness of its historical value, so as to develop it into an overseas base for patriotic education and a unique window for the British people to learn about Chinese history.

In the 1880s, sailors of the Beiyang Fleet were dispatched by the Qing government to Newcastle, United Kingdom, to take delivery of four cruisers, including Zhiyuan. It is currently known that six sailors died in a foreign land due to the hardships of the long journey and difficulty acclimatizing, and were buried in St John’s Cemetery in the city.