How a crazy monk led me to enlightenment

China's four classic novels - A Dream of Red Mansions, Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Marsh - are mandatory reading for any expat who wants to get a better handle on the mysteries to the Middle Kingdom.

They offer more insight into the Chinese psyche than any guidebook can ever reveal. But be warned. Each novel is about 1,500 pages. In between working, learning Chinese, traveling and being distracted by the million other curiosities here, it took me more than a year to nearly read them all.

Journey to the West is one of the funniest books I have ever read and is a marvelous mix of folklore, religion and anti-bureaucratic satire.