The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake is a famous Chinese geographical book in the form of diaries. Xu Xiake, a geographer of the later Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), after 30 years of traveling, wrote many travel diaries on famous mountains and other places, with a total of 60,000 characters. After his death, these diaries were compiled into a book called The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake.

The book is mainly about his observation during his travel from 1613 to 1639 and provides detailed records of geography, hydrology, geology, and plants. The book is highly accomplished in both geography and literature.

In terms of geography, the book includes 5 main parts.

The first part is a detailed study and scientific study of the karst landform. Xu visited over 270 caves in the (South China) Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and in (Southwest) Guizhou and (Southwest) Yunnan province s, kept records of their directions, height and depth, and elaborated on the cause of the formation. He was a pioneer in systematic karst studies in both China and the world.

The second part is the correction of some mistakes of the records on the source and waterways of Chinese rivers.

The third part is the observation and recording of the species of many plants, explicitly putting forward the influences that landform, temperature, and wind speed might have on the distribution and blooming of plants.

The fourth part is a survey on the volcano relics of Tengchong Mountain in Yunnan Province. Xu kept records of the shape and quality of the red pumice expelled from the volcano, and provided scientific explanation thereof.

The fifth part is a detailed depiction of the phenomenon of terrestrial heat, the earliest of its kind in China.

As a literary work, the book vividly portrays the landscapes amid narration, hence imbuing it with a strong real-life flavor. Through applying dynamic description and personification, the travel diaries were more delicate and paid more attention to details than did their predecessors, boasting a high artistic and aesthetic value. Besides, a large glossary and rich rhetoric techniques were employed to express the author's feelings.

While recording his travel experiences in his diaries, Xu Xiake also related the lives and customs of local people as well as the distribution of ethnic minority groups, which was seldom seen in official history, hence its value in the study of history and nationalities.

Author: Jessie