Two Frenchmen, Prosper Giquel and Paul d'Aiguebelle [zh] were appointed as directors, with Shen Baozhen acting as the arsenal's first imperial commissioner.

While launched in January 1898, deliveries of material and supplies for Jianwei was held up by the turmoil of the Boxer Rebellion which lead to a delay in sea trials for the ships until 1902.

Meanwhile, a poor working relation between the Chinese and Doyère led to his removal of director in, over a year after his original contract expired in 1903.

The ships had inward sloping tumblehome hulls and overhanging sponsons, typical of French Fin de siècle naval designs.

The ships machinery was also imported from France, and unlike the Fei Ying, only had four Normand boilers rather than eight, and two VTE engines, driving twin shafts.

Starting on 20 January 1930 Jian'an was renamed Datong (Chinese: 大同; pinyin: Dàtóng; Wade–Giles: Ta Tung) and undertook a year long reconstruction at a cost of ¥467,200.

While the ships' armour was retained, they were rearmed with two single 120 mm (5 in)/45 Armstrong Whitworth guns, mounted fore and aft.

[9] Jian'an and Jianwei joined the Yangtze squadron after the establishment of the Republic of China and were posted at Shanghai during the Northern Expedition of 1926, where they stayed neutral under admiral Yang Shuzhuang [zh].

[11] Despite their recent rebuild, the performance of Ziqiang and Datong was considered unsatisfactory, and combined with their overall age, the two ships were earmarked by the ROCN to be expended as blockship in the event of a possible invasion by Japan.