China is an ethnically diverse country and there are a total of 235 languages listed as still being in use in China. The official language, however, is Mandarin, or Putonghua (meaning common language). Non-Chinese speakers who wish to live in China and study the language are therefore advised to focus on Mandarin as this official dialect can be understood in most parts of the country.
There is also a wide variety in the written language in China. 22 of China’s ethnic minority groups use 28 written languages of their own. Chinese has two different commonly-used written forms. Simplified Chinese has fewer strokes per character and fewer characters in common use. Simplified Chinese is the standard form used in Mainland China, while Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional characters. Below you can see an example of the difference between simplified and traditional characters with the word “dian hua”, or telephone:
Simplified Chinese: 电话
Traditional Chinese: 電話