South Korean actor Lee Seung-gi has whipped out his Chinese skills in the second batch of "New Journey to the West," a tvN online series, released on Friday.

The sixth to 10th episodes of the online variety show were uploaded at 10 a.m. local time on the South Korean portal Naver and its Chinese equivalent QQ.com.

In the sixth episode, actor Lee, rapper Eun Ji-won, comedians Kang Ho-dong and Lee Soo-geun -- a dream team from the highly successful first season of KBS 2TV's "Two Days, One Night," a variety show, in 2010 -- complete their first mission in the central Chinese city of Xi'an where the show was filmed last month.

The mission was to find their way to a guest house from the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport with just 50 yuan ($7.84) and 10 percent battery life left on their phones.

(tvN)

Actor Lee plays the Master from the 16th century Chinese classic "Journey to the West," which the show is modeled after.
Rapper Eun is Monk Sha; Kang is Pig Guy; and Lee Soo-geun is the Monkey King.

The last to arrive at the guest house must wear thermal underwear in 40-degree-Celsius weather and buy lunch for the team.
The seventh episode documents the trial of the unlucky participant.

The eighth episode hits a rather low point, with Kang Ho-dong trying to come up with a signature greeting gesture as the Pig Guy.
The other three try to help, but all they manage is a slap-stick attempt at entertaining Xi'an pedestrians.

The second mission is given in the ninth episode in which the four have to guess which dish of the 100 available at a restaurant is the hot stew made with beef brisket, Asian mushrooms and noodles.
They are provided with an all-Chinese menu and must finish whatever dish they ordered that isn't the stew before ordering another. The prize is the first of the seven dragon balls they need to collect on the journey. This is where actor Lee shines as the participant with the most knowledge of Chinese characters.

The tenth episode records the first night they spend in the city.

"New Journey to the West" is the first variety show produced by a TV network to be released exclusively online in South Korea.

The first five episodes have accumulated more than 10 million views. With the second batch out, the show is expected to breeze past its goal of 20 million views.

The penultimate installment, also of five episodes, will come out next Friday. (Yonhap)