How many languages are spoken in China?

Here's a question we've been asked many times, and it's honestly a very large number! According to Ethnologue.com there are 292 living languages in China, many others are extinct. The Chinese languages are commonly divided in 10 main groups : Mandarin, Wu, Gan, Xiang, Min, Hakka, Yue, Jin, Huizhou and Pinghua.

What is the official language of mainland China?

The official language of mainland China is Standard Chinese , which is based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing.

What is the official language of Taiwan?

The official language of Taiwan is Standard Chinese , which is based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing.

How long is China's history?

China has the longest continuous history of any country in the world with roughly 3,500 years of written history .

What is the difference between Simplified and Traditional characters?

Simplified characters are used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong-Kong and Macau. Traditional characters haven't changed much since the 5th century, whilst the simplified system was established in the 1950's.

Where to learn Chinese dialects?

Whilst quality resources to learn Chinese dialects are somewhat difficult to find on the internet, you can still find valuable teaching videos on YouTube. The best way would be to take classes with a professional language school like LTL . Indeed, we are the only language school to provide Chinese dialects classes (Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hokkien) both online and offline. Feel free to contact us for more details about our dialects classes.