For those that would find themselves traveling to Chinese regions such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, learning how to count from 1 to 10 by hand the Chinese way should come in handy in situations like at the market or at a restaurant.

One to five are fairly linear:

One (Chinese character: 一)

Two (Chinese character: 二)

Three (Chinese character: 三)

Four (Chinese character: 四)

Five (Chinese character: 五)

From six to ten it gets a bit more tricky. But it’s definitely not too hard to remember:

Six (Chinese character: 六)

Seven (Chinese character: 七)

Eight (Chinese character: 八)
This is derived from the fact that it looks like the Chinese character.

Nine (Chinese character: 九)

Ten (Chinese character: 十)
Ten is the only number that cannot be counted using one hand. It is created by crossing two index fingers together. I have heard that there are certain Chinese regions that also use a fist as ten. Though, I see this way of making a ten to be quite common.