In July of 2009, I traveled throughout China with my nephew, Nathaniel Wolkstein. He wanted to visit mountains and exotic places. He was game for whatever adventures would be ours. I wanted to experience the land that Monkey King and Xuan Zang walked on, as well as meet with Taoists and Buddhists and find out what the story meant to them.

The Buddhists monastics we met were warm and welcoming. The Taoists were more reserved and introverted; still, we had the opportunities to walk in their Temple gardens and speak with several of them. I especially wanted to make the pilgrimage to Putoshan, Gwan Yin's island. 

We traveled by plane, car, bus, boat, train, camel — to many places, almost more than we could ingest or digest; but an epic is large and there is much to see, experience and understand.