Long description
The majority of east China and west China predominantly speak Mandarin (circa 800 million speakers). In the far southeast, however, other varieties are spoken. For example, in Shanghai and Hangzhou the predominant variety of Chinese spoken is Wu (circa 75 million). Also in the southeast area, approximately 80 million speak Cantonese, approximately 50 million speak Min, 35 million speak Xiang, 35 million speak Hakka and 20 million speak Gan. In central China the map is coded as the population speaking ‘Other languages’.