 In 1869 Xu retired to his home province, where he died four years later.During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Xu's tomb was reportedly smashed and the clothes on his corpse stripped off, according to a 2015 report in state-controlled media.During his tenure in Fujian province, Xu Jiyu had the opportunity to interact with a number of Westerners who had just arrived in the province, such as the American missionary David Abeel, and the British consular officials, Rutherford Alcock and George Tradescant Lay, father of Horatio Nelson Lay.