Popular Chinese Games Mahjong

Mahjong is a Chinese game designed with a pile of plastic/wooden bricks. It is a game to work the brain and be active socially. The Chinese developed this game in Qing Danysty, and it is still one of China’s favourite traditional games, especially in the southern part of China.

Do You Need to Play the Chinese Game Mahjong?

If you want a game to idle time with your friends on a rainy day, Mahjong will be a nice choice for indoor activities. Besides, it is super cool if you can win a Chinese in this game. So, why not learn this game? AliceChinese will design interesting interactive games for you to familiar with this game, contact us if you want a try. We bet you will love it. Nevertheless, we don’t encourage you to play this game improperly. Always remember to be careful of your money and don’t indulge in any gambling after you mastered this game. Although you can play for money, the games work equally well without doing so.

What We Need to Play Chinese Games Mahjong?

how to play Chinese Mahjong

It is easy to play this game, but we need four people to play this game. Four people, a table, four chairs, and most importantly, a Mahjong set, then, we can get started.

How to Play Chinese Games Mahjong?

You will first need to learn how to pronounce and read the numbers from 1 to 9.

Check the article: 

Learn Chinese(Mandarin) | Chinese Numbers (1-10) with Audio & Quiz

 

to ffamiliarize yourself with the Chinese numbers, of course, we also recommend you to use Mahjong to enforce your knowledge and memory of the numbers.  

Numbers Type 1: tuoType 2: wantype 3: tiao
一 (yī) "one"一 (yī) 坨"one biscuit" 一 (yī) 万"one ten thousand" 一 (yī) 条 "one strip"
二 (èr) "two"二 (èr) 坨 "two biscuits"二 (èr) 万 "two ten thousands"二 (èr) 条 "two strips"
三(sān) "three"三 (sān)坨"three biscuits"三 (sān) 万"three ten thousands"三 (sān) 条"three strips"
四 (sì) "four"四 (sì) "坨four biscuits"四 (sì) " 万four ten thousands"四 (sì) " 条four strips"
五 (wǔ) "five"五 (wǔ)坨"five biscuits"五 (wǔ) 万"five ten thousands"五 (wǔ) 条"five strips"
六 (liù) "six"六 (liù) 坨"six biscuits"六 (liù) 万 "six ten thousands"六 (liù) 条 "six strips"
七 (qī) "seven"七 (qī) 坨"seven biscuits"七 (qī) 万 "seven ten thousands"qī七 (qī) 条 "seven strips"
八 (bā) "eight"八 (bā) 坨"eight biscuits"八 (bā) 万"eight ten thousands"八 (bā) 条"eight strips"
九 (jiǔ) "nine"九 (jiǔ) 坨"nine biscuits"九 (jiǔ) 万"nine ten thousands"九 (jiǔ) 条"nine strips"

The Rules to Play Chinese Games Mahjong

In different regions, even a neighbour city from here, the scoring system can be completely different. So we will show you merely the rules in Changsha: Pile up the tiles right before you, roll the dice to decide who plays first, each get 13 tiles to draw 13 tiles from the pool. The one who plays first get one extra tile which is 14 tiles to kick off the game. Players then take the turn to draw and discard tiles. We put the same type together.
While playing, we try to form this, And we try to create the Chi, Peng, Gang from other players who discard the tiles.

Chi 吃 (eat)

Peng 碰 (meet)

Gang 扛 (leverage)

  • Rule 1: two of the same tiles are a pair. You can draw a pair from the pool by yourself or win the game by waiting for a tile from others.
  • Rule 2: Three of the same tiles can get a Peng. You can form combinations and get a Peng when any of the three players discard the tiles.
  • Rule 3: Four of the same tiles can get a Gang. Same as three combinations, You can form combinations and get a Peng when any of the three players discard the tiles. Besides, you get an extra chance to get one more tile at the end of the pool.
  • Rule 4: Three of the same type of tiles in serial numbers can get a Chi. You can only get a Chi from the people who play right before you in that turn.


To win, we need all the tiles to form combinations by Chi, Peng or Gang and we need at least one pair.

Chinese popular game Majiang MahJong