Much research has been conducted to investigate how native tonal language experience, in comparison with non-tonal language experience, shapes the perception of non-native tones. Little is known about how tonal experience of different dialects within a tonal language affects tone perception of the standard variety. The present study aimed to investigate how the complexity of tonal system in two Chinese varieties (i.e., Cantonese and Hakka), and how the tonal correspondences between each of the two varieties and Mandarin (i.e., the standard variety), affect Mandarin tone perception by speakers of the two varieties. The tonal system of Cantonese is more complex than that of Hakka, in terms of both tonal inventories and tonal categories. However, the correspondences between Cantonese tones and the Mandarin level/falling tones are looser than those between Hakka and Mandarin tones. An identification experiment and a discrimination experiment of Mandarin level and falling tones were conducted among native speakers of Guangzhou Cantonese, Meizhou Hakka (both with high level of Mandarin) and Mandarin. Results showed that the more complex the native tonal system, the better perception of Mandarin tones. Surprisingly, the tonal correspondences between the language variety and Mandarin did not seem to affect Mandarin tone perception as expected.