Comment by mytailorisrich

In Chinese the use of 西 (western) often really means from the West compared to China so India/Central Asia/Middle East, which can be a little confusing at first if you are used to the word meaning "Western World".

For instance, watermelons come from Sudan/Egypt and thus arrived in China from the West long before Europeans visited.

Another example is The Journey to the West (Monkey King) novel which is also about travelling to India.