The main language in China is Mandarin Chinese, but it is spoken differently in Beijing and Shanghai, in the same way that people speak English differently in different regions of the U.S. Many people in Shanghai and Beijing speak English, too, and there are people here from all over the world, so I have heard people speak Spanish, German, Arabic, French, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean, Polish and many other languages, too.
The money in China is different from money in the U.S. It is called renminbi (RMB), which means "people's currency." The value of money is also different. If you exchange money at the airport, 1 USD is equal to about 6.5 RMB. This makes paying for things a little confusing because I have to do math in my head to figure out if something is expensive or not.
A bottle of water is about 2 RMB, which is equal to 30 cents. If I bring a water bottle with me, there are many public water fountains where I can get water for free! Many of these water fountains have only hot water or warm water, because people in China think it is good for your health to drink warm water instead of cold water.
