Mandarin Chinese survival kit

About this kit

Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with over one billion speakers. Even if the tones seem intimidating, Chinese people greatly appreciate foreigners who make the effort. This kit gives you the keys to survive in Beijing, Shanghai or Chengdu.

Mandarin Chinese, or Pǔtōnghuà (普通话, the common tongue), is the mother language of around one billion one hundred million people and the official language of the People's Republic of China, of Taiwan (under the name Guóyǔ), and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It is also one of the six working languages of the United Nations. Standard Mandarin is based on the pronunciation of Beijing and the grammar of northern dialects. Its most striking feature for a traveller is its tonal system: four phonological tones plus a neutral tone radically transform the meaning of the same syllable. The word mā can mean mother, hemp, horse or to scold depending on whether your voice rises, falls or stays flat. Writing uses simplified sinographs on the mainland and in Singapore, and traditional sinographs in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. The official romanisation, Pinyin, lets you read and pronounce without knowing the characters. This survival kit prepares you for a short stay in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu or Taipei. You will find the essential greetings, taxi and metro phrases, the codes of the Cantonese or Sichuan restaurant, emergency formulas and useful hotel vocabulary. You will also discover the cultural codes that truly matter: the concept of mianzi (face), the custom of paying the bill, the use of WeChat for payments and the symbolism of numbers. A few words spoken with respect open every door in China.