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At the end of February or the beginning of March [[1901]], he was appointed Army Inspector by the imperial court which had taken refuge in [[Xi'an]] following the [[Boxer Rebellion]] and the intervention of foreign powers. Then, in June of that same year, at the insistence of the foreign powers which favored the brother of Guangxu over the other princes of the imperial family, the only 18-year-old prince Chun was appointed ambassador extraordinary by the imperial court, in charge of conveying to the emperor of [[Germany]] the regrets of the emperor of China for the murder of the German ambassador [[Klemens, Baron von Ketteler|Baron von Ketteler]] at the beginning of the Boxer uprising. Prince Chun set out by sea in July, met the German ''[[Kaiser]]'' [[Wilhelm II]] in [[Berlin]] in September of that same year, then visited several European countries and returned to China. He was one of the first members of the imperial family ever to travel abroad.
Cixi was quite pleased with the way he handled his mission in Germany (allegedly he refused to kneel in front of the ''Kaiser'', a custom mandatory at the Chinese imperial court and which the Germans had insisted on him following in Berlin), and so he was appointed to several important posts in [[Beijing]] in the following years. At the same time, Cixi was anguished by the favor that Prince Chun enjoyed with the foreign powers. One of the reasons why Prince Chun was appointed to all these important posts after 1901 was the fact that he was a protégé of the foreign powers which Cixi was very careful not to displease. However, she was as intent as ever on thwarting any challenge to her power, and so Prince Chun clearly posed a problem for her. In 1900, when the foreign powers entered Beijing, the fiancée of Prince Chun had committed suicide to avoid the dishonor of rape. Cixi saw an opportunity there: in [[1902]], on his return from Germany, Prince Chun was ordered by Cixi to marry [[Youlan]] (幼蘭), the daughter of the Manchu general [[Ronglu]] (榮祿) (1836-1903), from the Guwalgiya clan, one of the leaders of the conservative faction at the court, and a staunch supporter of Cixi. Ronglu had played a leading role in the brutal ending of the [[Hundred Days' Reform]] in [[1898]] and the internment of the Guangxu Emperor that followed, and so Prince Chun greatly disliked him, and accepted to marry his daughter only because it was unthinkable to oppose Cixi. The marriage, however, was an unhappy one. With the 2nd prince Chun now firmly tied to her, Cixi saw no more danger, and when Puyi was born in [[1906]] from the marriage, the infant became a likely heir to the throne.
[[Image:2ndPrinceChun2.jpg|frame|2nd Prince Chun with his eldest son Puyi on his left, and his second son Pujie on his lap. Photo taken in the end of 1907.]]
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