This textbook is based on a proven methodology that allows you to gradually master the basics of the Chinese language, learn basic syntactic structures, learn enough lexical units for everyday communication, learn to read and write the most common hieroglyphs and expand your knowledge of the culture and history of China. Particular attention is paid to the phonetics of the Chinese language, which is significantly different from the phonetics of European languages. The manual takes into account the main difficulties encountered by native speakers of the Russian language when learning Chinese. The book is addressed to a wide range of readers. It can be used both for independent classes and for individual group classes by a teacher.