Hi Lingua, I'm actually not from China but from Singapore (which is not near China). In Singapore, students (starting from 7 years old) have to learn English and their Native Language, which is Chinese for my case. It is complusory for Chinese in Singapore to learn Chinese, so I didn't learn it out of passion. However, the Chinese characters are very beautiful as the characters can portray its meaning. Here is an example from TedTalks.
Where are you from Lingua?