The last Russian Orthodox Church was established on this site in 1906, yet the surrounding cemetery may have had graves dating back to the 17th century. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission with the traditional onion-shaped dome, had the capacity to hold 350 people. It is also called the Church of Saint Serafim of Sarov or the Church of the Holy Martyr. Only a drawing of the church has survived time. The newer part cemetery opened in 1900 on the north side added 50 more grave sites. Members of the Royal Russian family, who were executed on July 18, 1918 by the Red Army at Alapayevsk in Russia, were brought by train on April 16, 1920 at 2:00 am in eight metal-sealed wooden coffins to be interred: Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Nun Barbara (Yakovlia) of the Martha-Mary Convent in Moscow, Princes John, Constantine and Isor Konstantinovich, Count Vladimir Pavlovich Paley and Baron Theodore Remeza arrived in Beijing from Harbin, China. In October of 1918, members of the White Army had rescued these bodies from a shaft, buried them in Russia, but the bodies were eventually exhumed and brought to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission while fleeing the Red Army. They were placed in a crypt under the church building. Though the political environment in China was changing over the years from an empire to a Communist nation, the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China did not cease its missionary activities in the 1930s and 1940s although this was truly difficult. After regular worship services ceased, the church building became a warehouse, then abandoned and was in ruins from wars, yet the crypt that housed the Royal Russian family's remains was undisturbed. The last service in the church was in 1964. Since the government of the USSR was not interested in managing this abandoned church and cemetery, the Chinese government developed the property. The remaining church structure was demolished in 1986 as construction workers moved earth and stone to make a park landscape. By this time, the Russian Royal family bodies had been re-interred in the cemetery for several years. A newspaper article dated 2018 states the bodies of the Russians buried there were not moved but have a final resting place under the golf course of the Qingnianhu Park. Besides the members of the Russian Czar's family of the early 20th century being buried in the church cemetery, this cemetery was the last resting place for neighborhood families who were members of the church, priests, Christian victims of the Boxer Rebellion, and from the early 19th century, five English men, a Frenchman, and 10 Indian Army soldiers. Today, none of the graves are marked.