The origin of Chinese characters

Chinese script has at least a history of four thousand years. We are not certain of the date of its invention. There have been various stories about the origin of the Chinese characters. In remote antiquity, ancient people made records by tying knots with a rope. Another story says that there was an ancient legendary figure whose name was Cangjie（仓颉）. He worked as Emperor Huangdi︐s historiographer. It was said that Cangjie had four eyes, and he was good at observation. He often watched the footprints of birds and beasts as well as the appearance of stars. His long-term observation inspired him to create the earliest written characters.
These legendary stories cannot be accepted as the truth. However, in ancient China, characters began as simple drawings of natural objects.
These legendary stories cannot be accepted as the truth. However, in ancient China, characters began as simple drawings of natural objects—trees, water, mountains, horses, and humans. The earliest characters are thus “pictographic” in quality. In Banpo (半坡)Village in Xi︐an and other places, archeologists discovered symbols engraved on the unearthed potteries which date to the period of the Yangshao Culture(仰韶文化), a matriarchal culture of the early Neolithic Age. More than 4000 years ago, ancient people in the present Tai︐an area of Shandong Province engraved symbols on pottery which belong to a late period of the Dawenkou Culture(大汶口文化). Experts believe that these pictographic symbols may be the earliest forms of Chinese written characters.
At present, philologists think that symbols engraved on Yangshao pottery are not a written language. However, the symbols engraved on the Dawenkou pottery unearthed in the Tai︐an area may be the earliest forms of Chinese written characters. In this view, Chinese characters have existed for more than 4500 year.

I think maybe you will have this kind of question: Is it difficult to learn Chinese character?
Chinese characters are not an alphabet as Western languages used. Each character represents a separate word, and Chinese characters indicate both the meaning and the sound for a whole word. The writing system is not a convenient device lying ready at hand for overseas learners to pick up and use. In English, there are 26 alphabetic symbol, English native speakers can make tens of thousands of words with comparative ease. In Chinese, each character must be laboriously memorized. Language learners often wonder how many characters they need to learn in order to have a reading knowledge of Chinese materials other than classic literature. Various estimates have been given, ranging from 3000 to 5000. Statistics show that the majority of the 50,000-60,000 existing characters are not in common use.