Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke Mandarin during the whole session of a 30-minute interview at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Wednesday. He tried some jokes as well.

Zuckerberg surprised everyone when he spoke Chinese. He said he learned Mandarin because his wife Priscilla is Chinese and his grandma-in-law only spoke Mandarin. He said he likes Chinese culture and would like to challenge himself since Mandarin is so difficult to learn.

Like Us on Facebook

China is Zuckerberg's fifth stop of his Asian trip that started at the beginning of October. He had visited India, Indonesia, Korea and Japan.

Zuckerberg was asked what his plans are for this Asian trip. He said he would like to help more people get access to the Internet.

"In 2004, I wanted to connect all the people in Harvard. Actually, I always wanted to connect all the people in the world. When I founded Facebook, we were glad to help students connect the world. Other companies did not believe us to accomplish this, but we do. We now have 1.3 billion users."

Many Tsinghua University students showed their interest in establishing their own business. Zuckerberg gave his advice.

"I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world.... If you decide you want to found a company, maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers. But you maybe have lots of ideas and you don't know which one is best. If the first idea isn't good, then your company isn't good. But if you decide to change the world you should try to develop more ideas. If any idea is very good later you found the company."

Zuckerberg also told the secret of success to Chinese students.

"I think the best thing to do is not give up. Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn't smooth. You'll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don't believe in your mission giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don't give up. Therefore, believe in your mission and don't give up - very important."

Another purpose of Zuckerberg's trip to China is hiring talents. Facebook just hired 25 Chinese students last month and will hire much more students in Chinese universities next year.