China is home to over 1.3 billion people, who live in such contrasting environments as the fast-paced modern cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, the mountains and forests in western China. So it's little wonder China has little more than 200 languages and dialects. Traditionally, Chinese languages (classify) into seven groups, (include) Mandarin, spoken in the north, central and western provinces. There are two versions of the (write) language. Simplified Chinese is used in mainland China and has been adopted by Singapore, Malaysia and Southeast Asian countries, while traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. More than two (three) of Chinese speak various dialects of Mandarin.
It may surprise you (learn) that the term "Mandarin" is not really the name of a language. It actually refers to various Chinese dialect groups. you choose to call it, Mandarin has been a powerful force for unity in a country. The total number of speakers worldwide is over eight hundred million, making Mandarin (widely) spoken language in the world, followed by English as the second.
