Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 31

Located to the north of the German and French lands, the territory reaches the Baltic Sea original: 巴得冰海 (Bade Binghai); literally "Bade Ice Sea," a phonetic rendering of Baltic in the north and extends to Poland and Russia in the east. To the west, it borders countries such as Sweden original: 綏林 (Suilin) and Denmark original: 領墨 (Lingmo). The land lies between 49 and 58 degrees north latitude, and between 6 and 20 degrees east longitude. Its total area is 320,000 square miles square li: while a li is a Chinese unit of distance, Wei Yuan uses "square li" here to translate Western miles from his sources.

The population consists of 13,000,000 inhabitants living in 3,311,000 houses. Every year, the national treasury receives 36,000,000 silver dollars original: 員 (yuan); likely referring to the Spanish or Mexican silver dollars used in international trade at the time in revenue, which is equaled by the nation's expenditures. Of this spending, 15,690,000 dollars are allocated for military provisions. The national debt stands at 130,000,000 dollars, though this amount is currently and gradually decreasing.

The standing army consists of 165,000 men, categorized as follows:

• Imperial Guards: 18,000 men
• Cavalry: 19,000 men
• Artillerymen: 15,700 men
• Infantry: 104,000 men

Additionally, there are 359,200 militiamen minzhuang: "sturdy commoners," referring to the Landwehr or national reserve forces. The total military force numbers 524,000 men. The nation is geographically divided into two parts, East and West.