Diplomatic missions were sent out for the first time. The first of the diplomatic envoys was Guo Songtao in 1877, who saw much of the British industrial heartland and wrote letters about it. In one such letter, Guo writes to Li Hongzhang, a self-strengthener, about Britain 's Great Leap Forward: from the beginning of England 's rise, it has been only several decades; while China was weak and declining, they covered a distance of 70,000 li in a wink of an eye ... Chinese Scholars and officials are presumptuous in their sanctuary and are trying to obstruct the changes of the universe; they can never succeed (Dorothy Ko quoted in Schoppa, 92)
This was a reaction by Guo against the conservatives as they were actively trying to go against modernization. However, Guo was not well received by the Qing court and had to retire for fear of his life but his mission to Britain allowed for more Chinese missions by 1879 (Schoppa). Although diplomacy reforms had some effect they were still downplayed by the ultraconservative