Chinese characters are based on inscriptions found on bones and tortoise shells in the 14th and 12th century B.C. The written language was unified by the first emperor (qín shǐ huáng 秦始皇-221-210BC). 

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Due to the great distances and the diversity of the races of people, 

people from different regions use their own pronunciation, words and 

grammar. To solve this problem, the Chinese government decided to choose the Beijing dialect to be the standard language which is also called pǔ tōmg huà"普通话". 

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pǔ tōmg huà"普通话" literally means "common language". It's also

called hàn yǔ  汉语 which comes from the name of the majority race

called Han people.  

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Chinese characters are not phonetic and each character holds meaning 

in addition to expressing sound. 

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It is said the language passed to nations in the Korea peninsula 1500 years ago, and then passed on to Japan. 

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The use of Chinese characters by the Vietnamese people dates back to as early as the Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China (25 AD to 220 AD). For centuries, Chinese characters remained the official written language of ancient Vietnam and were widely used by its well-read intellectuals, who were deeply influenced by Confucianism.

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Nowadays, Chinese characters are used in the countries and regions including: China, Hong Kong, Macau,Taiwan, Singapore, Japan,  Korea and overseas Chinese communities. 

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Simplified Chinese characters are used in Mainland China and Singapore.