Xu Xiake was born in a prosperous family. Influenced by his father, he loved to read books about geography, adventure, traveling and so on. These books developed his early love of the motherland's magnificent scenery, and made him determined to travel over mountains and rivers. At the age of 22, Xu Xiake began his journey. In his lifetime, he traveled throughout China for more than 30 years, documenting his tours extensively. In order to carry out thorough investigations, he seldom traveled by carriage or boat. Instead, he took long trips on foot almost all the time, climbing mountains and hills. The records of his travels were gathered by others after his death into book The Travel Diaries Xu Xiake.