The plot spans nearly 30 years and tells the story of a poor boy from the northeast, "Xiao Bao", who follows his village's hairdresser, "Er Ge" (Sha Yi), to Shenzhen, a special zone. The two are forced to take care of the baby, and then they meet up with a cold-hearted young woman named Ma Lu (Ma Li).
"Only after death did I find out that I was Bai Yueguang, the prince of the Beijing circle." Shen Xiwei, only child of the chairman of the Yunshui Group, was in love with Pei Yunxiao, her driver's son. Shen Xiwei's dad passes away suddenly, and in hopes of marrying Pei Yunxiao, she transfers all she inherited to him. Pei Yunxiao and his girlfriend, Meng Qingran, infect Shen Xiwei, and as she's in her death bed, they refuse to help her. They leave Shen Xiwei to die, and in her last moments, she finds out that the only person who loved her was Zhao Tingshen, the prince of the Beijing circle. She vows that, if she gets a second chance, she'll learn from her mistakes. Zhao Tingshen swears to protect her in another life, and that he'll be there to love her. Shen Xiwei is reborn as the girl she was 10 years before passing, in her last year of university, and she'll do everything to unmask Pei Yunxiao and Meng Qingran and find her true happiness with Zhao Tingshen.
"Journey to the West" is an embedded documentary film into a bus full of Chinese tourists visiting Europe (6 countries in 10 days!) for the very first time. This road movie captures with humor, poetry and spirit the cultural differences between China and Europe in a play of mirrors and contrasts. It also destroys the stereotypes about the emerging Chinese middle class and reveals what they think about the "others" who are "us", the Westerners.
