fortunately the gigantic barrier of the horrible writing system is starting to crumble down thanks to technology.

You can now search for words using pinjin, voice or drawing (thanks Pleko).

And if you encounter unknown printed(!) signs you can just point your camera at it (now or soon, what's currently the best app?).

As for calligraphic handwriting this will forever remain elusive. You may consider it as an utterly useless hobby.

As much as I despise Siri, one things she is surprisingly capable of is answering: "hey Siri what does sneeze mean in Chinese"