Celebrating Chinese language, literature, culture - and food

More than 160 children’s books have been donated to Christchurch libraries for Chinese Language Week.

New Zealand Chinese Language Week runs from September 22-28 and aims to increase the number of people learning the language.

To help achieve this goal, the New Zealand Chinese Language Week Charitable Trust has donated 162 Chinese language children’s books to the city's libraries.

The language is considered one of the hardest to learn in the world and has many different dialects.

Mandarin is the most commonly spoken dialect, while Cantonese is also well-known.

There are about 200 different dialects - but the 10 main ones are:

Mandarin
Cantonese
Min
Wu
Jin
Yue
GanHakka
Xiang
Huizhou
Pinghu

A New Zealand Chinese Language Week project team spokesperson said the event has become "pretty big in Christchurch".

Experience all four seasons in the special dumplings at Madam Kwong's Restaurant on Sunday. Photos: New Zealand Chinese Language Week Charitable Trust

A number of activities are planned across New Zealand next week, including a restaurant Design-A-Dumpling competition in which you can vote for your favourite from September 22-28.

The week will start in Christchurch with a special Four Seasons' Delights dumplings day at Madam Kwong's Restaurant on Blenheim Rd on Sunday, September 22.