I've had people that they like the ontological orientation of Mandarin, not so much the fact that the "words" are pictoral but the way they are combined systematically.
I’ve been learning it for over a year because I want to be able to speak to my wife in her native language. So far I’m loving to learn it for the exact reason you said, the way sentences are pieces together is outright fun to me. I’m also amazed by how much information can be packed in a small combination of characters.
It raises the question of the (eventual) link between the grammar of 'spoken' language and our habilty to think the world. I personnaly think almost every human natural languages have the power to express almost everything with the help of circumlocution.
