How useful are the kanji in reading Chinese? Possible Duplicate:
  Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?  




I'm learning Japanese, and I'm going to learn all of the jouyou kanji, which is about 2000 characters. Of course, over time I'll learn many words made from them as compounds.

What I'm wondering about is how much overlap there is?

Once I reach a certain level of ability and can read Japanese very well, will I also be able to read Chinese at least a little?

I know I'll at the very least be able to pick out words here and there, but just how much? Are very many hanzi used the same way as their corresponding kanji? Are many compounds common to both languages?

Thanks!
Personally I found learning Chinese after Japanese a very positive experience. Indeed having a good knowledge of Kanji made a big difference and eased the learning of Hanzi. At first it took me a while to get used to simplified characters. Knowing radicals has helped me a great deal. Also I tend to use a lot of technology that was not available when I was learning Japanese. Particularly for reading a writing Chinese.