THE TALKING CLOCK LANGUAGE (Kunming City)

CHINESE SPOKEN language is built around tones. Mandarin has four, Cantonese six. In English we use tone to convey emotion dramatically - but they do not change the words spoken.

With this in mind it is quite hard to explain the sound of Chinese spoken language to an Australian speaker. The best analogy is probably the Telstra speaking clock,
"The time\is now /forty/three\past/seven."