Diagram of Chinese Tones
  ( Presented in five-scale vertical line )

Tones:

Chinese uses differences in pitch to distinguish words and word meanings within the pitch  range established by the intonation pattern. Chinese putong hua has five tones including the neutral tone.

The “ first tone “  ( indicated by a short horizontal or macron if you like “ ¯ “ over the vowels ) starts on a relatively high pitch at 5 on the tone diagram and stays at that pitch for the complete syllable.  It’s also called high-flat tone in Chinese.

The “ second tone “ ( indicated by an acute accent graph “ ´  “ over the vowel ) starts at a lower pitch at 3 and then rises to a higher pitch at around 5. Hence the name rising tone in Chinese.

The “ third tone “  ( indicated by a little hook or hacek if you like “ ˇ “ over the vowels ) starts at pitch 2 before dipping close to the bottom of the pitch range at pitch 1 before picking up to a point around pitch 4. It's also known as the falling-rising tone.
 
The “ fourth tone “  ( indicated by a grave accent graph “ ` “  over the vowel ) this tone starts at the top of the range and drops quickly until the bottom pitch 1.

The “ neutral tone “ this tone( usually unmarked ) has a pitch that is determined in the flow of speech by the tonal pitches of neighboring syllables.