Between the 1860s and the 1870s, Du Fengzhi, a native of Shanyin, spent more than a decade as a local official in Guangdong. His diaries, totaling around 3.5 million Chinese characters, were a valuable gold mine for historians. Du served as the Country Magistrare of Nanhai for five years. Since Nanhai was where the city of Guangzhou was located, Du found himself constantly involved in foreign affairs and diplomatic negotiations under the instructions of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi. Du's diaries reveal his ambivalent attitudes towards "the West". He was at once curious, frightened and hostile when dealing with foreign consuls or merchants. Du's attitudes towards "the West" were representative of those of the middle and low-ranking officials in late Qing.