To saw his sick mother, Shen Congwen started his journey to home and wrote down what he saw and heard and his perceptions along the journey on the letters to his wife in Beijing. Later, basing on these letters, he collated and published this prose work. Besides the natural sceneries of western Hunan he saw while sailing towards upstream of Yuan River, he mainly focused on the scenes of life, work and multiplying of the people from all walks of life in the land of western Hunan, including sailors, soldiers, miners, merchants, ordinary masses he had met. On reading the book, the hints of his concerns about the changes of Western Hunan under the influence of the age can be felt, which reflects Shen’s deep love and strong sense of responsibility for his hometown.