pdflatex + ctex support Chinese font

•  Xelatex could support Chinese with ctex + Truetype/OpenType font. you could search web for detail.
• latex could support Chinese with ctex + tfm/pk font.
• pdflatex need type1 font, so tfm/pk and Truetype/OpenType font doesn't work. But there are three ways to support Chinese for pdflatex
• ctex + simsum.ttc
• \documentclass[fontset=windows]{ctexart} 
• zhmetrics provide tfm file for simsun.
• zhmetrics provide mapping file to map tfm back to simsun.ttf (Truetype), but not for other Chinese ttf font,  see /usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/zhmetrics/zhwinfonts.tex
• it embedded Trutype font into pdf.

• ctex + CJKutf8 + gbsn. 
• it embedded type1 font into pdf, you could use "pdffonts" to check.

\documentclass[fontset=none]{ctexart}

\usepackage{CJKutf8}
\begin{document}
\begin{CJK*}{UTF8}{gbsn}
你好，世界！
\end{CJK*}
\end{document}

• CJK + gbsn

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{CJK}
\begin{document}
\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{gbsn}
这是一个CJKutf8的例子，使用的字体是gbsn。
\end{CJK}
\end{document}