The people of China speak mainly Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese language is one of the oldest in the world and there are many different varieties. The dialects have different tones or sounds and a person from one part of China may not understand a person from another part of the country.

Does Chinese have an alphabet?
The characters themselves are not an alphabet, but their sounds can be written into another alphabet. In 1958 a standard system was adopted by China to help Chinese students learn Chinese pronunciation and to serve as a possible future replacement for Chinese characters.

How have characters changed over time?
The earliest known characters were written on bones and turtle shells, that's why they used to have a stick-like appearance. As characters were written on other materials after that, and finally, written in ink, their appearance changed, and today, they have a more rounded shape.