One of every five people in the world live in mainland China. The Joshua Project shows that there are 542 people groups and Ethnologue reports that there are 247 different living languages. Despite this diversity, China boasts a 91% literacy rate in Mandarin Chinese which is written in two scripts, Traditional and Simplified.

Standard Chinese (known in China as Putonghua), a form of Mandarin Chinese, is the official national spoken language for the mainland and serves as a lingua franca within the Mandarin-speaking regions (and, to a lesser extent, across the other regions of mainland China). Several other autonomous regions have additional official languages. For example, Tibetan has official status within the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Mongolian has official status within Inner Mongolia. Language laws of China do not apply to either Hong Kong or Macau, which have different official languages than the mainland (Cantonese, English and Portuguese).

The sounds of the Chinese language are expressed in Pinyin, a romanized representation of the Chinese characters. These Pinyin number about 1700 in common use. You can use the Pinyin chart to hear the respective sounds. We also have these Pinyin in MP3 and AIFF formats that you can order for use on your own system.

In the late 1960s, English became the most important foreign language in China. After the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1988, English is now taught in the public schools starting in the third year of primary school, and it is a required subject for persons attending university. Proficiency in English is a mark of prestige.

Sources:
The Joshua Project - https://joshuaproject.net/countries/CH
Ethnologue
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Languages_of_China
http://globalrecordings.net/en/country/CH?page=all
http://www.chinese-bible.com/