The Chinese have many local languages. Sometimes these languages are so different that they sound like they are from two different countries! If you go to a new city, you may not know if the locals can understand you or not.
But luckily, most people speak Mandarin since it is the language taught in schools. In my city, the locals also speak Wenzhounese, which is the hardest language to understand in China if you are not from this city!
Fun fact: during wartime, the Chinese would send secret messages in Wenzhounese, so their enemies could not figure out their battle plans.
Instead of using dollars, China uses "renmibin" (人民币) which means "the people's currency" in English. But the word "renmibin" is a mouthful, so the Chinese also call it the "yuan" (元). The symbol is ¥.
A bottle of water costs ¥2 (or 30 cents in U.S. Dollars!).
My favorite meal I had this week was hotpot. Hotpot is a great meal to enjoy with friends and to eat when it is cold outside. It usually takes one to two hours to finish eating a hot pot meal because you cook the food yourself with friends!
There are three steps to eating hotpot.
Step 1: Pick a soup flavor.
