Mandarin Chinese is the official language of Mainland China and Taiwan, and it's one of the official languages of Singapore and the United Nations. It is the most widely-spoken language in the world.

Dialects

Mandarin Chinese is sometimes referred to as a “dialect,” but the distinction between dialects and languages is not always clear. There are many different versions of Chinese spoken throughout China, and these are usually classified as dialects. 

There are other Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong, that are very distinct from Mandarin.