A fire set at the Siege of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 in China caused the destruction of the Yong Le Da Dian and other irreplaceable books.[47] Not only were many of the books housed in the Hanlin Library destroyed by fire, but many of the books not ruined were collected by British soldiers as souvenirs.[48] Because the Yong Le Da Dian was written out by hand and had no copies, much of the cultural heritage it recorded is lost forever.[49]