 Eventually stretching to one hundred "juan", or scrolls, the treatise contains numerous maps and much geographical detail covering both the western and eastern hemispheres.Wei's book also garnered significant interest in Japan and helped mould the country's foreign policy with respect to the West.During his term in Canton (now Guangzhou) as Special Imperial Commissioner, Lin Zexu observed the might of British naval power and the inadequacies of the Chinese coastal defence system at first hand.