If you use latest Internet Explorer (V4.0 or later) or Netscape Navigator (Version 4 or later), you don't have to install any special program to read Chinese characters because both of these browsers can support Chinese natively. The same is true with other browsers, e.g. Firefox or Mozilla.

If you use previous versions of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, you should consider upgrading your browser version. You can also download and install Chinese Font or download Microsoft's free language packs and input methods for Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

Installing Chinese language packs will automatically set up Internet Explorer to recognize Chinese.

With Netscape, you need do a little configuration:

Talking about Chinese Pinyin rules, let's start by looking at following different scenarios:

1. Tone Mark Placement

The tone mark is placed over vowel if there is only one vowel, e.g. wo, or on main vowel of a syllable where they are two or three vowels, e.g. hao.

1.1 Syllable with one vowel letter, tone mark is always placed over vowel letter. For examples:

笔 bǐ ( pen ) , 山 shān ( mountain )

车 chē ( car ), 信 xìn ( letter )

1.2 Syllables with two or three vowel letters: If first vowel letter is a medial , e.g. "i", "u", or " ü ", tone mark is placed over vowel letter after medial.

For example:

学 xué ( study ) , 贵 guì ( expensive)

小 xiao ( small ) , 略 lüè ( strategy)

1.3 If first vowel letter is not a medial, tone mark is always placed on first vowel letter.

For example:

靠 kào ( rely ) , 要 yào ( ask )

好 hǎo ( good ) , 北 běi ( north )

2. Syllables With an Initial

Write down initial and then final with no space between them.

For example:

客kè ( guest ) , 桌 zhuō ( desk ) 忙 máng ( busy ) , 飞 fēi ( fly )

Exceptions:

If and only if "uo" follows "b", "p", "m", or "f", "u" is dropped, resulting in "bo", "po", "mo", or "fo". If and only if "ü" follows "j", "q", "x", ü is changed to "u", resulting in "ju", "qu" and "xu"