Introduction of Chinese Characters

Chinese characters are written in a shape of square, therefore they are known as square-shaped characters, each character consists of various strokes formed by different dots or lines as the basic components. If you plan to read or write Chinese characters, you will need to learn Chinese characters strokes and components.

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The structural levels of Chines characters
Lets take a example with 京(Jing1, 北京 Beijing3jing1)
Strokes, Components and Characters.
Strokes: 亠(丶一), 口(丨一 一), 小(丿丨丶)
Components: 亠 口 小
Characters: 京

Chinese Chararcter Strokes
There are five basic strokes of Chinese characters
一(Horizontal) 丨(the vertical) 丿(the left-falling) 丶(dot) 乙(turning)
Other types of strokes are derived from the strokes above, known as the derived strokes.
The great majority of Chinese characters are formed by more than two strokes .the strokes can only be written in certain directions. For example, the horizontal strokes should only go from left to right, the vertical stroke can only be written from top to bottom.

One-component & Basic character
One-component Characters have only one basic part and cannot be subdivided.
人(rén)(person),木(mù)(wood), 日(rì)(sun),月(yuè)(moon)
口(kǒu)(mouth),目(mù) (eye), 田(tián) (field), 八(bā)(eight)

Phonetic component + radical component
Some Chinese characters include a phonetic component which suggests the sound and a radical component that suggests the meaning.
方(fāng) (square) 访(fǎng)(to visit) 房(fáng)(house) 放(fàng)(to put) 仿(fǎng)(to imitate)
半(bàn) (half)伴(bàn)(to accompany) 拌(bàn)(to mix) 绊(bàn)(stumble)胖(pàng)( fat)
Learning these characters as part of their phonetic series helps you see the logic behind the characters and means you can easily remember whole groups of characters.

Some characters have no direct relationship but are easily confused by beginning students. Learning them together helps you differentiate them.
收(shōu)(to accept) 改(gǎi)(to correct) 敢(gǎn)(to dear) 枚(méi)(accounting word)

Chinese Characters structure
Left-right 明(míng),好(hǎo) Left-middle-right 脚(jiǎo), 粥(zhōu)
Top-bottom 男(nán), 尘(chén), Top-middle-bottom 器(qì), 赢(yíng)
Inside-outside 国(guó),回(huí) 区(qū) 风(fēng)

If you want to learn Chinese characters easily and quickly, very important thing is to know a lot of components/radicals. The components/radicals will help you to learn Chinese characters properly, also knowing more about Chinese culture and history.