Chinese characters are the written symbols used in the Chinese language. They are logograms, meaning each character represents a word or a meaningful part of a word rather than a sound. There are thousands of characters, and they can be combined to form phrases and sentences. Each character has its own unique structure and can consist of various components, including radicals that often indicate meaning or pronunciation. Learning to read and write Chinese characters requires memorization and practice, as they do not follow the phonetic alphabet system used in many other languages.