The language in China is Standard Chinese (known locally as Putonghua), which is based on the Beijing, or Mandarin, dialect. There are lots of other dialects, too: Wu (Shanghaiese), Yue (Cantonese), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka, and more. There are also parts of China (especially Tibet) where the language used has absolutely no connection with China as such. However, Mandarin Chinese (the `official’ language of the country) is understood and used universally almost all over China.

Unlike languages of the Indo-Aryan group, Chinese consists not of letters, but of characters made up of pictograms- one per word. Also, while speaking Chinese, tonal inflections can change the very meaning of the word; learning Chinese includes having to learn what tones to use while saying a particular word. For the use of foreigners, the `pinyin’ system of Chinese pronunciation (using the Roman alphabet) has been devised. It’s widely used in guidebooks and phrasebooks, and can be very helpful when you’re trying to get the message across.