Chinese characters can be broken down into simpler components.

Chinese characters are mostly made up of building blocks called radicals, which have 1 to 17 strokes. Radicals and strokes must be written in order: usually left to right and top to bottom. 

For example: In the character for 'feeling' 情, there are three radicals: 1) 忄 'heart', 2) 丰 'plentiful' , and 3)月 'moon'.  Changing the first radical in 情 makes different words like 请 ('to ask') or 清 ('clear').