The vastness of the land gives rise to diversity in language and dialect. Although 80% of the population use the traditional Chinese language, others speak regional dialects that differ enough in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar so as to make them difficult to understand. A speaker of the Min dialect may find it hard to understand a speaker of Cantonese. Fortunately, speakers of different dialects have the unified written language for communication, which was an accomplishment of the ruler Qin Shihuang over 2200 years ago.
    Despite the common written language, there were still problems. Thus, in 1958, the government standardized Chinese by creating a common spoken language (known as Mandarin in many parts of the world). Based on the dialect of Beijing and adjacent areas, it has become the official language used in public settings.

Chinese is older than other languages. Chinese writing is believed to have been in use for 5,000 to 6,000 years. Written text on bones and shells date back ... MORE