it varies from school to school but the basic is, from the beginning, white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown, black and there are sometimes "halfway" marks between each, and the belt is the solid color with a white or black strip running down the middle. (skunk belts)
most of the different variations of martial arts have major AND minor differences.... for instance jiu jitsu is considered "ground fighting" and karate and taekwondo have much more kicking and is all upright, while tai chi is very slow and deliberate. They are all cool. this link has a ton of different styles and how they work -
Martial Arts Information - Martial-Arts-Info.com
that's absolutely every little thing i know about it!