How old is Chinese kanji?

Some the earliest Chinese kanji charachters that have been discovered are said to have come from around 6500 BC and have been discovered recently at ancient sites in China. A couple thousand years later around 1200 BC was the discovery of oracle bone script in which scientists say is the first known example of Chinese kanji script and it was from here that modern day Chinese has evolved from.

Over the course of thousands of years and through the various dynasties and eras that ruled throughout China, the kanji has changed and new characters have been adopted. It is believed that there is at least 50,000 different kanji that is associated with Chinese script. Chinese kanji has always been known as one of the most elegant and complex writing scripts that has ever been invented. It is certainly one of the oldest scripts that is still used to this very day.