On August 21, 2004 a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church led by Bishop Mark of Egorevsk, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations, arrived in Beijing. Bishop Mark was met in the capital's airport by Russia's temporary Charge d' Affaires in China, S.N. Goncharov and by E. Yu. Tomihin, senior counselor of Russia's embassy in China.
On August 22, the day of the commemoration of the Holy Apostle Matthias, on the territory of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Chinese People's Republic -- the former territory of the Russian Spiritual mission in China -- Bishop Mark served the Divine Liturgy. This was the first liturgy, after a 50-year break, served on Chinese ground by a bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate: in 1957, after the cessation of activity of the Russian Spiritual mission in China and the East Asian Exarchate, all bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church left the country. In 2001 the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill made an archpastoral visit to China and served a moleben and litiya on the territory of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Beijing.
Present at the liturgy were employees of the Russian embassy and the Russian trade mission. Following the liturgy Bishop Mark addressed the faithful and presented an icon of the Theotokos as a gift to the Orthodox community.
The same day Russia's temporary Charge d' Affaires in China, S.N. Goncharov gave a dinner in honor of the Russian Orthodox Church's delegation.