徐霞客一生周游考察了十六个省，足迹几乎遍及全国。他在考察的过程中，从不盲目迷信书本上的结论。他发现前人研究地理的记载有许多很不可靠的地方。为了进行真实细致的考察，他很少乘车坐船，几乎全靠双脚翻山越岭，长途跋涉；为了弄清大自然的真相，他总是挑选道路艰险的山区，人迹稀少的森林进行考察，发现了许多奇山秀景。

  Xu Xiake toured and investigated 16 provinces in his lifetime, covering almost the whole country. When he was carrying out his investigations, he never took blind belief in the conclusions in the books. Instead he found a lot of unreliable points in the geographic records taken by his predecessors. In order to make his investigations reliable and thorough, he seldom traveled by carriage or boat. Instead, he took long, arduous trips on foot almost all the time, climbing mountains and hills. In order to learn the truth of nature, he always chose to conduct investigations in mountainous roads and lonely woods, where he discovered a lot of magnificent peaks and beautiful sights.