Alexey Startsev

He built forty stone houses and a printing plant in Tianjin, as well as a two-mile long demonstration railway and telegraph lines.

he spoke Buryat, Mongolian, Chinese, and several European languages, often serving as an interpreter; notably in the negotiations with Li Hongzhang, which led to the Tianjin Convention.

[1] For his role in organizing and conducting Sino-French trade negotiations, he was awarded the Legion of Honor, 5th degree.

By 1895, he had opened brick and porcelain factories, established herds of cattle and sika deer, was operating a stud farm, and built a four-story house for himself in the center of Vladivostok.

About the time of his death, his large collection of Buddhist objects, manuscripts, and books on East Asian studies, still in Tianjin, was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion.