I learned Chinese as an adult, first in Beijing in the mid 1970s. Being in Beijing, I was taught simplified characters. In later full-time study in Hong Kong, I learned the traditional forms.

An 11th century letter of just 124 characters by a famed scholar of China has set a new record price for a work of Chinese calligraphy, fetching a whopping US $32 million at an auction in Beijing.

Chinese characters don't readily work with the English-centric internet. The New Republic's Chris Beam tells NPR's Scott Simon that the Chinese use numbers that when pronounced, sound like words.