During his tenure as the Qing government's ambassador to the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Italy, he wrote a diary describing his diplomatic activities and his impressions of European countries. Apart from documenting records of historical events such as the Taiping Rebellion, he also wrote essays on local legends, the macabre and the supernatural. As a proponent of introducing Western technology into China, Xue wrote about witnessing new technology such as the telephone while he was abroad.