Northern Chinese accent vs. Southern Chinese accent

[Linda]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc2TVtP-3-Q

This video show the differences in the way Northern Chinese and Southern Chinese people speak 

 

[huangmao]

Northern Chinese tend to speak in a way closer to standard mandarin, the southern parts of China got more different local dialects, such as Sichuanese, Shanghainese, Hunan dialect, and the famous Cantonese. There is an article talking about the basics of the Chinese language for beginners, check it out if you are interested.

[宇崎ちゃん]

5 hours ago, huangmao said:

Northern Chinese tend to speak in a way closer to standard mandarin, the southern parts of China got more different local dialects, such as Sichuanese, Shanghainese, Hunan dialect, and the famous Cantonese. There is an article talking about the basics of the Chinese language for beginners, check it out if you are interested.

Sounds a lot like west vs east Japan to me; east Japan is mostly standardised, while west Japan has a bunch of different local dialects.
And the funny thing is that north China (the standard dialect) has 北京 (north capital), while east Japan (the standard dialect) has 東京 (east capital).

[宇崎ちゃん]

As for the video, north Chinese accent reminds me a lot to Korean with tones for some reason.
The south Chinese accent is how I often hear through announcements in intercoms, foreigners from China, and Chinese tourists.