Chinese dialects

There are a lot of dialects in China. Foreigners may feel confused when the travel in China. The further south they travel the more different dialects people will use.It is normal that every country would have different dialects due to the different parts in China.As the same reason, there are more different dialects in southern China because there are more massifs than northern China. In ancient times, people in the village could not travel as easy as the north people did. As a result, they could not communicate a lot and there forms more dialects than from the north.

The main dialect in the north espacially the dialect in Beijing, called Mandarin is the offical language in China today. "Mandarin The official national standard spoken language of China, which is based on the principal dialect spoken in and around Beijing.Also called Guoyo ,Putonghua "
As the official language, almost every Chinese can speak Mandarin. However, Chinese will think people from Beijing can speak the most "Standard" Chinese.
As for here, I would strongly recommend people to travel to Beijing if they want to learn Standard Mandarin.

The most popular and "international" dialect in China is Cantonese. This is a dialect that most people from Guangdong province can speak. Moreover, people from Macau and Hongkong also use the dialects as official language. This is also the main reason why Cantonese is so "international".
I have watched a lot of American movies. Sometimes, there are scenes when Chinese speaking; most of the time, they actually speak Cantonese instead of Mandarin. This is also because some famous Chinese actors and actresses mainly from Hongkong speak Cantonese a lot. For example, Jakis Chen, a famous Chinese Hollewood actor, is from Hongkong and he sometimes speak Cantonese in the movies.
Another reason, why Cantonese seems more popular in China towns in USA is because there are a lot of Chinese immigrants are more likely from the south. They also would bring their local dialects to USA, which mainly are Cantonese.
As you may find out, there are some words that are actually from Cantonese. For example, Dimsum is a Cantonese word.
Cantonese is also a lot different from mandarin. People from the north cannot understand Cantonese. For them, it sounds like a foreign language.
The reason why Cantonese become the most popular dialects in China is because there a lot of famous Hongkong movies and stars. Also, the big cities from the south are good places to have some business. So it is a good chance to have business if people can speak Cantonese.