Almost everyone in Beijing speaks Manderin. Only few have a Beijing accent. However, if you ever meet someone who ends every word he says with a "r" then no doubt you have found someone with a heavy Beijing accent. Apart from that, there aren't any big differences in the pronunciation.

For convenience, it's really better to learn at least the most basic Chinese phrases. Not everyone in China can speak English even if everyone learn it as their first foreign language at school. So here are some basic Chinese phrases which should make communication a bit easier:

- 你好- ni hao - Hello.

- 谢谢 - xie xie - Thank you.

- 不客气 - bu ke qi - You'r welcome.

- 再见 - zai jian - Good bye.

- 对不起 - diu bu qi - Sorry.

- 可以帮我吗?- Ke yi bang wo ma? - Could you help me?

- 我想去... - wo xiang qu... (q pronouce like "ch" in chinese) - I would like to go to ....

- 多少钱? - duo shao qian? - How much does it cost? (This is actually not very correct, but it's an easy way to ask someone how much you have to pay.)

And also even though the Chinese currency is official called RMB or 人民币 Ren Ming Bi in Chinese, but you will hardly find anyone who actually says something cost ...RMB. People say 块 "kuai" or 圆 "yuan" instead. Also official it's one "jiao" for one cent but everyone uses the word 毛 "mao" instead.