Listed below is my selection of the top 10 Chinese proverbs (歇后语/谚语). They show how creative the Chinese philosophers are and explain why the Chinese philosophers are seen as a source of great wisdom.

• 画蛇添足
  To add legs when painting a snake. (To gild the lily)
• 将功成万骨枯
  Tens of thousands of bones will become ashes when one general achieves his fame. (A great person needs others to sacrifice themselves to build his success)
• 肉包子打狗
  To hit a dog with a meat-bun. (Using the wrong method to approach a problem)
• 富不过三代
  Wealth can´t past three generations. Meaning: It's so obvious that the wealth of a family can last for three generation the 2nd may see the value of hard work, the 3rd, forget it).
• 三个和尚没水喝
  Three monks have no water to drink. (Too many people involved in a matter gets nothing done)
• 骑驴找马
  Riding a mule while looking for a horse. (Settle for what you have while looking for something better)
• 冰冻三尺, 非一日之寒
  Three feet of ice is not resulted from one day of freezing weather. (Rome was not built in one day)
• 世上无难事，只怕有心人
  Nothing is impossible in the world, “the impossible thing” fear only those with perseverance. (Where there's a will, there's a way)
• 滴水之恩当以涌泉相报
  A drop of water shall be returned with a burst of spring. (Even if it was just a little help from others, you should return the favor with all you can when others are in need)
• 死马当活马医
  Try to rescue the dead horse as if it is still alive. (Do the impossible)

Interested in this topic? Then try this quiz on Chinese idioms.

在悠扬的前奏下, 一名穿红色衣服的小女孩唱响了《歌唱祖国》。中国的升旗典礼经常会以《歌唱祖国》为主题的步操乐曲《歌唱祖国》。这首歌是中国最有名的爱国歌曲。以下是《歌唱祖国》的歌词，你除了可以欣赏到开幕表演的影片，亦能借此中文歌曲学习中文：

To the melodious rhythm of the song ‘Ode to the Motherland’ (歌唱祖国, Gechang Zuguo), the Chinese national flag was ushered in the stadium, and hoisted with the excited and proud home crowd singing the national anthem loudly.

‘Ode to the Motherland’ (歌唱祖国, Gechang Zuguo) is often used as the marching melody of flag raising ceremonies in China. This song was sung by a girl called Lín Miào Kě in the flag raising ceremony and before the national anthem, as the most well known patriotic song in China.
Here are the Chinese lyrics of ‘Ode to the Motherland’ (歌唱祖国, Gechang Zuguo). You can watch the live video of the performance at the opening ceremony and learn Chinese by listening more to Chinese songs:

I hope that the China Survival Guide can help you have a wonderful trip to China:

1. 不要 (bù yào)

This is probably the most important phrase for you to memorize. It’s not really that hard, it only contains two syllables, so bear it in mind! Its meaning is “No, I don’t want it!” Let me explain: as a foreigner in China, you are like a magnet, especially to people who want to sell things to you. For the first few days, maybe you won´t mind the salespersons approaching you and selling their products. However, after some days you will probably get annoyed at the herds of Chinese trying to sell maps, souvenirs, chopsticks, food, bags, clothes, etc. to you. This is where phrase No.1 comes into place. When you see those salespersons approaching you, just keep on walking, keep your eyes straight ahead and don’t give them the slightest notice (this is very crucial for success!) and say “不要” (bù yào) . Don’t be afraid that they won’t understand what you are talking about as it is very easy to pronounce and they must know what you are trying to say.

2. 干杯 (gàn bēi)

I am now in Germany, and this is often the first phrase people want to learn. What does that mean? It means “Cheers!”/ “Prost!” The literal meaning of the word for “干杯” (gàn bēi) in Chinese is “dry the cup”, which means you have to finish the alcohol in your cup and “to make the cup dry”. However, when you are in the Southern Cantonese speaking regions, the word for “Cheers!” is “饮胜” (yĭn shèng) instead of “干杯” (gàn bēi).

3. 埋单 (mǎi dān)

This means that you want to get the bill. Note that it can also be written as “买单” which is pronounced in the same way. When you are at the restaurant and want to leave, you raise your hand and ask the waiter to come to your table. You can also call out by saying “服务员” (fú wù yuán) which means waiter. When they come to you, you can just say “埋单” (mǎi dān) and they will understand you want the bill.

4. The Basic Conversations

There is also the usual stuff like Hello, Bye, Thank you etc. which are really useful, and you can probably find them in all guidebooks. Here is a list of some basic phrases:

• Hello 你好 nǐ hǎo
• Goodbye 再见 zài jiàn
• Thank you 谢谢 xiè xiè
• I love you 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ (Maybe you will meet someone and fall in love at first sight)
• My name is (Laura). 我叫 (Laura) . Wǒ jiào (Laura).

Try to do the quiz below and see how much you know about the Basic Chinese words.Or check out this Chinese conversation survival guide.

The Chinese surname is placed before the person's name while the latter is placed after. Take the names Zhāng Huá Tiān(张华天)and Kathrin Shorr for example. ' Zhāng' (张)is the surname of the person named Huá Tiān (华天) while ' Shorr ' is Kathrin´s surname. Like most Asian surnames, Chinese surnames are passed down from generations and hold the family history in perpetuity. Chinese surnames tell others about the person's history and are always retained even though the name may change.

Here are some very common Chinese surnames according to a study published in 2006. If you are learning Chinese, I suggest you to memorize the list below, and you will find that you can read most of the Chinese people’s surnames already.

Top 20 Chinese surnames:

1. 李 Lǐ
2. 王 Wáng
3. 张 Zhāng
4. 刘 Liú
5. 陈 Chén
6. 杨 Yáng
7. 黄 Huáng
8. 赵 zhào
9. 周 zhōu
10. 吴Wú (I am in no.10)
11. 徐 Xú
12. 孙 Sūn
13. 朱Zhū
14. 马Mǎ
15. 胡 Hú
16. 郭 Guō
17. 林 Lín
18. 何 Hé
19. 高 Gāo
20. 梁Liáng

_______________________________________________________________
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames

中国人的名字与西方人的名字是非常不同的。中国人的姓氏是放在名字前的, 但是西方人的名字是放在姓氏前的, 刚好相反。例如中文姓名Zhāng Huá Tiān （张华天）和西方名字Kathrin Shorr作比较，' zhāng ' （张）是姓氏而Huá Tiān （华天）是名字，至于西方名字Kathrin 是名字而Shorr是姓氏。

根据一项在2006年发表的研究报告指出，以下是一些出现得最多的中文姓氏。

头20个最常见的中文姓氏(看见自己的姓氏吗?):

1. 李 Lǐ
2. 王 Wáng
3. 张 Zhāng
4. 刘 Liú
5. 陈 Chén
6. 杨 Yáng
7. 黄 Huáng
8. 赵 zhào
9. 周 zhōu
10. 吴Wú (我在第十哦)
11. 徐 Xú
12. 孙 Sūn
13. 朱Zhū
14. 马Mǎ
15. 胡 Hú
16. 郭 Guō
17. 林 Lín
18. 何 Hé
19. 高 Gāo
20. 梁Liáng

_______________________________________________________________
参考: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames

Since Chinese is a tonal language, this adds another difficulty to the tongue twisters, because they also play around with in the tones while pronunciation eventually stays the same. Here is a popular and quite difficult example:

青青山上一根藤,
qīng qīng shān shàng yī gēn téng,

青藤底下挂铜铃,
qīng téng de xià guà tóng ling

风吹藤动铜铃动.
fēng chuī téng dòng tóng líng dòng

Literal meaning: On a green mountain grows a vine. Under the vine there hangs a copper bell. When the wind blows, the vine moves and so does the bell. When the wind stops, the vine stops and the bell stops too.

The following one is more difficult, let´s try:

吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮,
chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí,

不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮.
bù chī pútao dáo tǔ pútao pí.

Literal meaning: When you are eating grapes, don't spit out the skin. When you are not eating grapes, do spit out the skin.

Not difficult enough? So how about this one?

四是四, 十是十,
sì shí sì, shí shì shí,

十四是十四, 四十是四十,
shísì shí shísì, sìshí shí sìshí,

四十四隻不試字之石獅子是死的.
sìshísì zhi bùshízǐ zhi shíshīzǐ shì sǐ de.

Literal meaning: 4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 illiterate stone lions are dead.

I think that should be enough tongue twisting for today, give your tongue a rest. Practice them more and improve your Chinese pronunciation. This video is of a Chinese learner trying out a tongue-twister. Very funny, enjoy!

青青山上一根藤,
qīng qīng shān shàng yī gēn téng,

青藤底下挂铜铃,
qīng téng de xià guà tóng líng

风吹藤动铜铃动.
fēng chuī téng dòng tóng líng dòng

不够困难吗？来试试一个更加困难的:

吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮,
chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí,

不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮.
bù chī pútao dáo tǔ pútao pí.

很难哦!!很难哦!! 我应该吐葡萄皮或不吐葡萄皮呢？来试试这个吧！！

四是四, 十是十,
sì shí sì, shí shì shí,

十四是十四, 四十是四十,
shísì shí shísì, sìshí shí sìshí,

四十四隻不試字之石獅子是死的.
sìshísì zhi bùshízǐ zhi shíshīzǐ shì sǐ de.

舌头打了结吗？让您的舌头休息一下吧。多练习，能改善你的中文发音。看看这个外国女子如何挑战中文绕口令, 非常搞笑!!

Chinglish has become a running joke among many foreigners in China, and many websites have been set up listing humorous examples of the mistranslation.

A road sign in China warns people to be careful and not to fall into the river with the words: "Carefully fall to the river".

Menus frequently list items such as "Living to fry the beef rice", "Butter many Privates" and "Bureau minced meat idea powder".

There are a lot of mistranslations in China as many Chinese words express concepts obliquely and can be interpreted in multiple ways with different meanings, making translation a vipers’ pit for non-English speakers.

The municipal government in Beijing first tried to face up to the problem just a month after being awarded the 2008 Olympics back in 2001. The Beijing Tourism Bureau also set up a hotline for visitors and residents to tip off examples of bad English, and said results would be reviewed by a panel of English professors.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics are just around the corner, it is difficult to get all people with good English and to have all signs properly translated.

However, please believe me, China is improving rapidly. The new China is coming.

``中国式英语´´一向是许多外国人的笑话，而且还有许多网站故意列出``中国式英语´´的例子。在中国, 有道路标志警示 "人们要小心，不要落入河" 被翻译为 "Carefully fall to the river" 。在餐厅的菜单经常出现食物名称，如"Living to fry the beef rice", "Butter many Privates" and "Bureau minced meat idea powder"。

在中国,误译的出现是因为很多中文词语表达的意思可以解释为多种方式与不同的释义，人们总是一个一个字翻译，导致``中国式英语´´出现。北京市政府在北京首次尝试面对问题，在北京旅游局设立了热线，为游客和当地居民提供服务，并教人们正确的英语。2008年北京奥运会即将来临，人们难以在短期内学习正确的英语，

不过，我相信，中国在迅速改善。"新中国" 即将来临。