Xu Hongzu 1587-1641

Better known as Xu Xiake, was the most famous Chinese travel writer of the imperial period. A native of Jiangyin (in present-day Jiangsu province), Xu's travel covered most of central and eastern China, as well as the present-day southwestern provinces, Yunnan and Guangxi, in his later years. His monumental Xu Xiake youji [The travels of Xu Xiake] was an important geographical and anthropological record of ancient China, ten juan of which is extant.

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