Buying a house in China

[Dareos]

correct me if i'm wrong, but isnt 60% a majority?

[HyeongSeong]

I was refer to the Han chinese . Most of the Mandarin people speaking people are base in big cities , in rual area they are more then likely to use their own language.

qute from wiki :
In December 2004, the first survey of language use in the People's Republic of China revealed that only 53% of its population, about 700 million people, could communicate in Standard Mandarin. (China Daily) A survey whose results were released in September 2006 gave the same result.(South China Morning Post). This 53% is defined when people can get 3-B(Error rate: lower than 40%) of Evaluation Exam. Another survey in 2003 by China National Language And Character Working Committee shows, if standard mandarin is defined by 1-A (Error rate: lower than 3%), the percentage is Beijing 90%, Shanghai 3%, Tianjin 25%, Guangzhou 0.5%, Dalian 10%, Xi`an 12%, Chengdu 1%, Nanjing 2%. That is why foreign Chinese learners have to learn oral Chinese in Beijing, but there is no limit to learn Chinese grammar and characters.

You can say that majority of han speak Mandarin but it doesn' t mean it is used widely .

[Kezzer]

That is not quite true , in fact only 60 or so percent of people speak Mandarin , rest of them speak their own local language.

Because the vast size of china , there are lots of places with their own language and culture . Just out of curiosity Kezzer where about in china are you heading to ?

There will probably lots of controversy over which is the most spoken, but it doesn't matter too much. The reason we'll be learning Mandarin is because we'll most probably be going out to rural areas. As for where we're going, I'm not entirely sure yet. My fiancee knows China much better than I do, and she's travelled around there. We'll be finding out more next year on our honeymoon as we're doing quite a bit of travelling then.

[HyeongSeong]

Good luck on your trip to china . I just come back from there are really enjoyed , people are really nice to me ( in face too nice ) . I know you will enjoy it and don't visit the night market on the 1st day there . You will end up eating too much food and couldn't get out of the loo the next day .

[Kezzer]

Thanks for the [pleasant] advice!

[fuddam]

handy trick with them night markets (or any street food that looks dodgy): eat some raw garlic beforehand and it will keep you up and running. No, not for the loo.

is old trick from Chinese peasants, when sometimes hygienic food sources are not an option

nope, it will not make you stinky, once your body adapts. Only people who tend to reek of garlic are those who hardly eat it.