Chinese character went for a German count, did you say? (10)

'chinese character' is the definition.
'pictograph' can be an answer for 'character' (pictograph is a kind of character). I'm not sure about the 'chinese' bit.

'went for a german count did you say?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'for' could be 'to' (eg both can mean 'in the opinion of') and 'to' is present in the answer.
'a' is found in the answer.
'german' could be 'g' (abbreviation) and 'g' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?