The ship arrived in Singapore on 3 January 1900 and then continued on to Hong Kong. "Zenta" embarked on a tour of ports in China in February, including those along the Yangtze River, before returning to Shanghai on 7 May. From there, she crossed to Japan, where the ship was on 30 May when the worsening Boxer Rebellion prompted the European diplomats in the country to request forces to guard the Legation Quarter. "Zenta" joined the international fleet that assembled as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance off the Taku Forts on 2 June; she operated there for the next twenty days. On 3 June, a landing party led by the ship's captain, Eduard von Montalmar, that consisted of one officer, two officer cadets, and thirty enlisted men went ashore to relieve the Legations; they helped to guard the embassies there during the siege of the Legations for the next two months. Another party, consisting of an officer, three cadets, and seventy-three men joined the force that stormed the Taku Forts on 17 June. Von Montalmar and three sailors were killed during the war with another four sailors later dying of their wounds.