I have heard people saying the above to me and I have always been skeptical of its interpretation1.
People use the above phrase to justify that it is often more useful to go travelling than reading.
To me, the idiom always sounds like a perfect “modern” excuse for someone
to travel (which is usually an easy undertaking in modern times)
than read (which is usually harder given the shorter attention span).
Then just a few weeks back, a friend pointed out that the 不如 is a modern addition2.
Now that sounds more logical.
读万卷书, 行万里路
行万里路跟读书是互补的，读书是静态的，行路是动态的，书中知识有限，只有行路眼观耳识才能补其不足。- from baidu.com
The idiom is saying that one should grow their learnings through a combination of learning, doing, hearing and seeing as that will give you a full appreciation of the problem and the topic at hand.
This really relate strongly back to my previous posting.
Now that is a idiom that I can subscribe to.
thou I have never make an effort to verify the source…
The modern version: “读万卷书不如行万里路，行万里路不如阅人无数，阅人无数不如名师指路，名师指路不如自己去悟”. For this I cannot agree to…