Direction

• When written in horizontal rows, Chinese characters are written left-to-right. When written in vertical columns, the columns are read from the right side of the page to the left side of the page. Sometimes these columns only have one character each, in which case they look like a row running right to left.
  
  

Character sets

• Traditional characters was the character set used by all speakers of Chinese until the middle of the 20th century when the simplified character set was developed to improve literacy in the People's Republic of China. Today, they are used primarily in Hong Kong and Taiwan and by expatriates from these areas. The United Nations and most of the rest of the Chinese-speaking world uses simplified characters.
  
  

Composition of characters

• Complex characters are generally made from other, simpler characters. Often, at least one of these partials will suggest the meaning of the word, and one of the others will give a hint as to the pronunciation.
  
  

Stroke Order

• The three strokes of the character for "kou" (third tone), Image by the author
  
  A person writing Chinese must make the strokes of a character in the correct order. Fortunately, there are rules regarding stroke order so that speakers of Chinese do not have to memorize every single character. For example, the character for "mouth" or "opening," "kou" (with the third tone), is drawn the same way every time you see it (see illustration for the stroke order).
  
  

Art

• Chinese writing is more than just communication. It is also an art. Many homes and businesses have hangings on the walls that are nothing more than beautifully drawn characters.