The Chinese language

Visitors to China who make an effort to speak the language of their hosts are always appreciated. And spoken Chinese is not as challenging as some might think. There are six main dialects, which vary greatly; but Mandarin, the official language, is the one most Chinese are able to speak and understand. It is spoken in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. Mandarin is now also spoken in Hong Kong too, particularly in formal circles.
            Newcomers to Chinese will find the ‘tones’ take a bit of getting used to. Mandarin has four, which means that any one syllable, 'ma' for example, can be pronounced in four different ways to mean four different things. Once you get used to these sounds, however, the good news is you need very little grammar. Forget genders, cases, plurals and tenses. Spoken Chinese is language stripped down to the bare essentials, and can be learned quite quickly. A little goes a very long way and will make business and travel in China far more enjoyable and successful.

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Some tough characters

The Chinese script is more demanding. There are reckoned to be some 40,000 characters in existence, but the number of 'words' needed to read a newspaper is roughly 3,000. Chinese characters are often called 'pictograms', but only a small number are actually pictures of things. Most characters are composed of two parts; the 'radical', which gives a general indication of the meaning (e.g. the characters for foal, stallion and piebald all contain the radical horse), and the 'phonetic' which gives an indication of the sound.
            The Chinese script was standardised by the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-209 BC), who was also responsible for the Terracotta Army and the Great Wall of China. Some new characters have been introduced in the last 100 years to describe scientific and technical advances, but other than these very few have been added over the past 2,000 years. Modern discoveries and inventions are rendered in existing characters, and the Latin or Greek root of an English word is often translated directly. For example, dinosaur, from the Greek words deinos (terrible) and sauros (lizard) becomes terror dragon in Chinese (kông lóng).

Greeting people in China

Chinese people greet each other with a nod and a smile. In formal situations they normally shake hands. As a rule the Chinese don’t kiss or hug each other unless they know each other very well.

Smiling happens a lot in China. This does not mean they feel particularly warm or friendly, so don’t read too much into a roomful of smiling faces listening to your proposal. Smiling in China is similar to the British habit of saying sorry all the time. Neither really mean it. But when in China don’t forget to smile yourself, otherwise you might give the impression all is not well.

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Using Chinese names

The Chinese put the family name first
e.g. Deng Xiaoping’s family name is Deng.

Chinese people often address each other with a professional title.

Here are some more professional titles:

engineer       gōngchéngshī  (shortened to ‘gōng’ when addressing people)
doctor           yīshēng
lawyer           lüshī
manager       jīnglī

In formal situations, people are introduced as ‘Mr’ (xiānshēng), ‘Miss’ (xiüojíe) or ‘Ms’ (nüshì). Chinese people don’t normally address a female as ‘Mrs’ (tàitai) unless she is with her husband. A married woman does not take the name of her husband.

More informal and familiar (at work or social) address people as follows:

‘Xiâo’ + family name if he/she is younger than you,  e.g. “Xiâo Lî”

or ‘Lâo’ + family name if he/she is older or more senior,  e.g. “Lâo Wáng”.

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Food in China

Chinese food has a rich variety of vegetables, of meats, fruit and sea food. Strictly vegetarian fare is not so easy to some by – except in Buddhist temples.

People in the north of China base their diet on noodle and flour-based food, whilst in the south you will find more rice-based dishes. The most common Chinese dish is a stir-fry with either rice or noodles. Rice or noodles tend to come separately, after the meat or vegetables dish.

When people eat in groups, dishes are shared. There is usually plenty of choice – pork, chicken, beef, fish, duck and fresh vegetables. You can sample the different dishes one by one.

Breakfast is eaten before the working day starts: between 6.30 and 9.00am. Lunch is around midday and dinner from 6.30pm onwards. Most Chinese companies have a long lunch break – about 2 hours.

Tap water is not always drinkable, so stick to bottled water unless you are confident in the source. Boil your tap water before drinking it.
 
Waiters in restaurants do not expect to be tipped.

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Medical services in China

Arrange travel and medical insurance before leaving for China. Medical services are not free. In big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai there are hospitals where English is spoken, but in smaller cities medical staff may not speak English so well.

Take your own first aid support and remedies for coughs and colds or similar. Painkillers, ointments and medicines are available in large supermarkets but not everywhere else.

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) has had much publicity in the west. The risk to humans is believed to be low. Nonetheless the formal advice is avoid live animal markets, poultry farms and other areas where you may come into contact with infected poultry.

Rabies is a more widespread problem – over a thousand cases a year in China. But even then your chances of catching this are less than one in a million.

If you need support in an emergency

Ambulance and medical: 120
Fire service: 119
Police: 110
Traffic accident: 122  

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Shops in China

Shops open as late as ten o’clock and generally stay open till late in the evening. Many do their shopping after work. Shopkeepers are often willing to negotiate on price – though not in the supermarkets or larger department stores. Bartering can make a purchase an even better deal.

Entry requirements

You will require a visa to enter China. This must be arranged in advance as a visa cannot be obtained on arrival, and fines may be charged for overstaying a permit.

Some religious activities are restricted, including preaching and the distribution of religious materials.

Drug offences are heavily punished.


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These pages represent a general guide only. The information is believed to be correct at the time of going to press. Lingua (UK) cannot be held liable for the accuracy of information given.