Abstract: Xu Xiake (1587-1641)was a famous geographer in the Ming Dynasty. His investigation and exploration in the karst fields were the most advanced than anyone in China and in the world at that time. In his remarkable book "Xu Xiake's Travels", he made a detailed record of the karst phenomena in Hunan, Cuaagxi, Guizhou and yunnan during his trip. From the point of modern geography "Xu Xiake's Travels" can be considered as the earliest and fruitful work about regional karst informtaions.His contributions to karstology may be summarized as follows.1.The classification of karst landforms. Based on particular landscapes of rocky mountains, three major patterns and many subtypes were distinguished in Guangxi, southern Guizhou and Yunnan.2.Detailed descriptions of various karst morphology, definitions of karst terms and explanations of some karst developing processes.3.Studies on the assessment of tourist resoutrces in the karst regions. These three aspects of Xu's contributions to karstology, make Xu Xiakea great pioneer in karstology.