Background

Xu xiake, also named Hongzu (1587 ~ 1641), and born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, was the noted traveler and geographer of the late Ming Dynasty. He refused to take Part in the imperial examination, but devoted himself to travelling all over the country.
During his lifetime, Xu Xiake traveled around and conducted surveys in 16 provinces. He left his footsteps in virtually every part of the country. In the process of conducting his surveys and investigations, he would never blindly embrace the conclusions recorded in previous documents. Instead, he discovered that the documentations made by his predecessors in their geographical studies were not quite reliable in many aspects. In order to ensure that his reconnaissance were real and detailed, he seldom traveled by ship or by wagon. He climbed over mountains and hills and traveled long distances almost entirely on foot. In order to develop a true picture of the natural world, he made it a point of undertaking his expeditions in those mountain areas where roads were difficult to travel and in those woods that were sparsely populated. In this way he discovered many marvelous mountains and beautiful scenes. He frequently chose different times and seasons of the year to make repeated visits to the famous mountains across the country so that he could make repeated observations of their wonderful scenery that kept changing all year round.

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