Faxian and Marco Polo lived 900 years apart, near the beginning and end of the Silk Road. What values do their narratives promote? What similarities and differences do you see in their narratives? How are those similarities and differences related to the kinds of journeys they undertook, the purposes of their journeys, and the times in which they composed their travel narratives?

Both Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist monk who was also known as Fa-Xian or Fa-Hsien, and Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, undertook arduous, years-long journeys across the Asian continent. They also both wrote travelogues about what they had observed. Faxian's was called A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Xian of His Travels in India and Ceylon in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline, while Polo's was titled (depending on the language it was translated into) The Travels of Marco Polo, Book of the Marvels of the World, or Description of the World. Although both of these men were great travelers, the motivations for and itineraries of their journeys were very different.
The purpose of Faxian's journey was religious: he wanted to visit sacred sites and acquire sacred texts. He commenced his travels from central China on foot in 399 CE and returned to China by ship in 412 CE. He crossed central Asia and entered India from the northwest, continuing on to Sri Lanka, from which he sailed back to China.
The main motivation of Marco Polo's journey, which he undertook with his father and uncle in 1271, was commercial. They first sailed to Acre, which is now a part of Israel, and from there went overland eastward along the Silk Road through central Asia. After years of travel, they arrived at Kublai Khan's palace in Xanadu, which was about 200 miles northwest of Peking. At that point, Polo's trip also became political, as Kublai Khan pressed him into service as a member of his court and an administrator of his kingdom. Marco Polo and his companions did not return to Venice until 1295, 24 years after they had begun their journey.
The narratives of both of these men provide fascinating looks at the cultures that they passed through and observed. They were both willing to endure many hardships for the sake of their respective journeys. However, the purposes of their journeys were different, they traveled in opposite directions to different places, and Marco Polo's journey lasted more than twice as long as Faxian's.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Faxian

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/marco-polo