Journey to the West is a Chinese television series adapted from the classic 16th-century novel of the same title. The first 11 episodes of the series were first broadcast on CCTV in China on 1 October 1986. The series became an instant classic in China and was praised for being one of the most original and faithful interpretations. The series was budgeted for 30 episodes, due to budgetairy reasons 5 of the planned episodes were left out. The screenplay for the left out 5 episodes was rewritten and some more portions of the original novel were later covered in the second season, which was released in 1999.

CCTV released the entire series online on YouTube as an edited version (all episodes are 45 minutes long) with English subtitles. The second season starts in the edited version with the capture of the Tang Monk (footage of the original episode 3). After that the edited version follows the original order. However, episode 5 Meeting immortals at Peacock Platform of the second season was deleted and parts of the content were integrated into the fourth episode Obstacle at Lion Camel Ridge making a total of 40 episodes instead of the original 41.