Peng Shirui, Class 6, Senior 2,

Shenzhen Foreign Languages School Instructed by Tang Hong

深圳外国语学校高二（6）班 彭诗睿

指导教师 唐红

Nowadays, there is an upsurge in traveling on a global scale. Looking back in history, from past to present, traveling has been a necessary part of humanity. However, the purposes of travel have changed with the times.

Ancient people, especially those in primitive societies, traveled to find food and new settlements to survive adverse conditions. Because of low productivity, primitive people sustained themselves by hunting and gathering, and were always on the move.

Later, in feudal societies, some people, such as Xu Xiake and Marco Polo, began to travel with their own aspirations. They wished to spend their time and energy during the best years of their life traveling and exploring unknown places. The travel journals of those two great pioneers have proven to be precious cultural heritages. Some travelers set off to accomplish missions for their superiors, like Zheng He, whose large-scale voyages were mainly aimed at earning prestige and respect of foreign countries rather than trading goods.

In the old Western world dominated by religion, travelers were mainly missionaries spreading Christianity to people around the world. During the Era of Great Geographical Discovery, navigators traveled for many social, economic and political reasons, for example to lay claim to new lands, treasures and natural resources.

We are now living in a modern developed society, with more and more abundance of material goods. People are now traveling in new ways and for new reasons. Most people travel just for fun, shopping or to take cool photos to share on social media and get likes. However, some aspiring young people travel abroad to study, and some down-to-earth researchers travel to conduct surveys and observations. Additionally, some people travel to meet people or find a new place to live. This variety will surely enrich the value of travel. In a word, modern people travel for a multitude of purposes, and anyone can travel as long as they like.

Generally, even though the purposes of travel may not be exactly the same for different people in different time periods, what is shared and inherited is the fundamental meaning and value of travel; that is, to explore the wonderful world and thus contribute to creating a better self and a better world.