Mahjong Voyage Tips and guide

Mahjong is a traditional tile-based board game. It is written as "麻將" or "麻将" in Chinese, "麻雀" or "マージャン" in Japanese and "Mạt chược" in Vietnamese, though most people call it Mahjong or something similar. It has a large player base in East Asia and Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore), and each region has developed unique rules. Mahjong continued to spread worldwide today, despite its long-standing association with gambling. While many view it as casual entertainment that builds social relationships or a grey area between tournament and gambling, several countries have developed professional and competitive sports.

This article will not discuss "Mahjong solitaire", a video matching game also known as "mahjong", here. They are unrelated.

Mahjong is a relatively new board game compared to its much older counterparts of Go, Xiangqi, and Shogi: It is believed that the game was developed in the 19th century. There are some disputes about its origin - while most believe that mahjong originated from Ningbo, some suggest that it is from Fujian or Guangdong. Wherever its origin, most believe that mahjong was spread to North China, Japan, and the rest of the Asian world from Ningbo after being introduced there. Each region started developing its own variants once mahjong was introduced.

Mahjong has been associated with gambling and organised crime from its start. Combined with opium smoking and time wasting at the time, it has been seen as a social issue. Local governments in East Asia have therefore tried to ban or restrict mahjong, such as a total ban of mahjong during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), when it was seen as a "corrupted capitalist game". These bans against mahjong have usually led to unsuccessful outcomes: The Chinese government finally gave up on banning mahjong in 1985, and in 1998, they promulgated a standardised version of mahjong known as Modern Competition Rules (MCR, 国标麻将 guóbiāo májiàng in Mandarin) in an attempt to reconcile regional rule differences for national and international competitions, but this is rarely played outside official tournaments - the vast majority of people play their local variant in casual settings. The Japanese, Cantonese (the most common version played in Hong Kong) and Taiwanese versions are by far the most prominent in pop culture today.

Thanks to recent advancements in computer technology and the Internet, there are many mahjong video games people can play, mostly online. You can download any of them and play with anyone, or see livestream tournaments online. From smoky teahouses to online platforms, the complex legacy of mahjong continues to reflect its cultural significance, and you can still see a mixed attitude about mahjong among people today - while many people still play mahjong when they want to kill time, other people see it as a problem that needs to be addressed.

Mahjong is a traditional game with pluralistic rules. Each region can have different rules, score different sets, or even use different tiles! While there are some basic rules most variants will follow, don't be surprised if the variant you play does not follow some rules written in the section.

Mahjong may have been the inspiration for rummy and related card games, so if you are familiar with games in that family, you will have an easy time understanding mahjong.

While mahjong is usually played by keeping score, with each system having rules that control which hands are valid and how much they are worth, it's easiest to learn by playing basic rules as many families might when playing with young children: ignore scoring, and allow any valid hand.

Mahjong is played with a set of tiles (although mahjong card decks do exist). Unlike a poker deck where each card is unique, most tiles in mahjong have 4 identical copies. The tiles are:

• Suits
  • 1 through 9 of dots
  • 1 through 9 of bamboo. (The 1 of bamboo usually has a bird instead of bamboo.)
  • 1 through 9 of characters. The tiles are numbered with Chinese characters, although some sets display western numerals as an aid.
• Honors
  • Winds: east (東), south (南), west (西), and north (北).
  • Dragons: green (發), red (中), and white. (The "white" dragon is sometimes shown with a blue or black frame.)
• Some variants use bonus tiles, most commonly flowers, seasons, or sometimes animals. Unlike the suit and honor tiles, there is only one copy of each bonus tile.
• Some variants also use wild or joker tiles.

Players take turns drawing and discarding tiles until someone draws a tile which completes a valid winning hand. Most of the time, a valid hand consists of four (in Japanese, Cantonese or MCR mahjong) or five (in Taiwanese mahjong) melds and a pair. The pair is simply two identical tiles. Each meld is either a set of three identical tiles, or a sequence of three tiles in a suit (in poker terms, a straight flush) such as 4, 5, and 6 of bamboo. (Only suit tiles can be used to make a sequence. Honor and bonus tiles do not have an "order", so you cannot make a "sequence" of winds or dragons.) There are some high-value hands which don't fit this pattern, but those can be ignored for now.

Ordinarily, players draw tiles from the deck (which in mahjong is called the "wall", since the tiles are dealt by arranging them into a wall formation on the table). Your hand is kept hidden, and you may rearrange it as much as you like. You don't have to commit to any sets or sequences that are in your hand, and can discard a tile to break them up at any time (and it's good strategy to always consider doing so).

Under some circumstances you can call the tile that was just discarded instead of drawing from the wall (but only the most recent discard; all other previously discarded tiles are not in play anymore). When you do so, you must reveal the meld that you have completed and set it aside, and you are not allowed to change it anymore.

• Chow: If the tile would complete a sequence of 3 tiles, then you may claim it from the player immediately before you (the one to your left). You cannot claim a chow from any other players.
• Pong: If the tile would complete a set of identical 3 tiles, then you may claim it from any player. It now becomes your turn, skipping over other players.
• Kong: If the tile would complete a set of four identical tiles, then you may claim it from any player. As with pong, it now becomes your turn, skipping over other players. Generally, the set is treated the same as a set of 3, meaning it only counts as one meld, with the fourth tile being an extra tile in your hand. To account for this, you then draw a replacement tile from the opposite end of the wall, and then continue play with that tile.

You may also declare a kong if you had previously called a pong, and subsequently draw the fourth tile from the wall during your turn, but not if another player discards the fourth tile. If you draw all four tiles by yourself, you can declare a concealed kong.

If you are short of one tile required to complete a winning hand, in most cases you may also call that tile from any player's discard to win the round.

If multiple players call the same tile, pongs and kongs take priority over chows, and wins take priority over everything else.

With that in mind, the flow of a hand goes like this:

1. Shuffle the tiles. This is traditionally done by all players using their hands to shove the tiles around on the table face-down.
2. Create the "deck" by stacking tiles to build a wall. Grab random tiles and make a stack 2 tiles high and the correct number wide (around 18, depending on the variant). Each variant has a convention for where to place the walls, sometimes angling them so they're easier for players to reach from across the table.
3. "Deal" starting hands by drawing tiles from the wall in turns. This is usually done by taking 4 tiles at a time, and then 1 tile to finish making a starting hand of 13 (in Japanese, Cantonese and MCR mahjong) or 16 (in Taiwanese mahjong) tiles.
4. If bonus tiles are being used, in turn order reveal any bonus tiles, set them aside, and draw replacement tiles. Continue until there are no more bonus tiles to reveal.
5. Begin play, starting from the dealer. Since no tiles have been discarded yet, the dealer must always draw for their first action, and they commonly perform this draw as part of dealing their hand.
6. Play in turns, rotating counterclockwise. On each players turn, they will either draw a tile or claim a discard. The tile they gain will either complete their hand, or they will discard a tile.
7. Play ends when a player completes a winning hand, or the wall has been depleted below a certain number of tiles and no players have a winning hand, the latter of which is considered a draw. The winner's hand's value would be calculated, and points would be collected from the other players. In some variants, points are collected only from the player who discarded the winning tile.

Depending on the variant, play continues in rounds with each player taking a turn as dealer, and a full game may consist of 1, 2, or 4 rounds. In most variants, the dealer retains their position if they won the previous round, or if the previous round ended in a draw.

The language you need to learn depends on what languages players speak. Knowing it can create a better watching or playing experience, as the game is usually used for relationship building. Certain words must be used to tell other players about your tiles during a mahjong game. Fortunately, they are limited and easy to pronounce, and are not difficult to understand. You may want to see the "Rules" section above or a mahjong glossary for them. The names of each scoring hand are more complicated, but they are only used when playing mahjong. More experienced players are willing to teach, so starters don't need to learn them.

Map of Mahjong

You might have heard that there's a mahjong museum in Chiba, Japan. Sadly, it has been closed since 2012. Fortunately, however, the museum's entire collection was purchased by an avid Chinese collector and can now be viewed at the Chongqing Mahjong Museum in Chongqing, China.

• 29.5813106.4432171 Chongqing Mahjong Museum (重庆麻将博物馆) (Ciqikou, Chongqing, China).  (updated Nov 2025)
• 29.87121.542 Ningbo Mahjong Museum (麻将起源地陈列馆) (inside the Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, China). It was the house of Chen Yumen (陳魚門), inventor of modern mahjong. You can see some interesting things about mahjong there.  (updated Nov 2025)
• 30.67296104.074333 Mah-Jong & Tea Culture Museum, 60 Baiyunsi St, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan. Opened in 2008. It has 500 pieces of exhibits.  (updated Nov 2025)

Cities in East Asia do have mahjong venues, but legal restrictions can vary in different jurisdictions. You should check them before playing. For starters, playing video mahjong games on computer devices is a better idea. Any popular mahjong games are okay, just remember not to download mahjong solitaire - you should have seen something that looks like Mahjong Soul (mahjong), not Vita Mahjong (mahjong solitaire). Playing mahjong in your friend's home may also be an option.

Mahjong has developed into a professional sport in Japan. Thousands of professional players join tournaments with hundreds to thousands of dollars in prizes available. The most popular leagues are M.League and Nihon Pro Mahjong, while hundreds of tournaments are also available. Thanks to their perfect Internet environment, most mahjong tournaments in Japan are available on YouTube. Abema can also be seen. In addition, online mahjong also provides online tournaments, so you don't need to worry about where to watch.

China also has national mahjong tournaments using MCR.

If you prefer on-site tournaments, check out each league's tournament information and buy tickets from them.

People in general learn mahjong from experienced players, who are usually someone they personally know. If there are no experienced players who can teach you, any mahjong video game's tutorial can give you an idea, while you should check which variant the game plays.

If you are considering a systematic learning of mahjong, there are still lectures available. In Japan, some mahjong venues provide such lectures. Check where you can find one at kenko-mahjong Japan Kenko-Mahjong Association. The Japan Professional Mahjong League^{[dead link]} also provides such lectures. They teach the Japanese variant in Japanese.

In Hong Kong, there are several licensed mahjong "schools", which are business establishments which allow the public to play mahjong inside. You can find them in densely populated areas such as Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Sham Shui Po in Kowloon and Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island. These businesses generally open from noon to midnight every day and geared towards Cantonese-speaking customers. Players have to pay a portion of their winnings each round to the business. To keep the games moving at a faster pace, the businesses slightly modified some rules. The term "school" is a white lie for the government and the business to avoid the gambling ban. But since 2024, one of these schools, 22.27942114.179931 Hong Kong Mahjong Company in Wan Chai, have started to offer actual classes to teach mahjong beginners. 2.5-hr Cantonese classes are offered twice-monthly on weekend mornings for $188 HKD, while English and Mandarin classes are offered occasionally for $488 HKD. Class schedule and registration details are posted on the school's Facebook page.

Plastic mahjong sets are inexpensive and can be bought in mahjong stores. Most larger cities in East Asia may have some, while many department stores or toy stores may also sell them. If you want to splurge, there are handcrafted and painted mahjong sets or made of exquisite materials that can set you back for $250 or even thousands of dollars.

• 22.305302114.1696391 Biu Kee Mahjong (標記蔴雀), G/F, 26F Jordan Rd, Hong Kong, ☏ +852 2730 4028. Daily Noon-10PM. Sells hand carved mahjong tiles.  (updated Jan 2026)

Electronic mahjong desks can be very expensive and only sell in mahjong stores, but you usually don't need one - a simple desk with chairs is enough to play, and modern mahjong venues provide electronic mahjong desks.

The link between mahjong and gambling is rather sensitive, and criminal organisations are often involved. As a result, many people hold a negative view of mahjong. If you want to play, it is best to play with friends you already know. Do not play mahjong that involves betting money in any form, as such games are prone to common scams or easily involved with criminal organisations. In the worst cases, you could face criminal charges. The legitimacy of mahjong venues (or mahjong schools) varies, or can even be tricky, across different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, legal mahjong venues should strictly prohibit gambling, cheating, and scams. Make sure the place you play is safe and has no suspicious concerns.

Do not make any comments or instructions on a mahjong game when watching it. Not only does it disturb players, but it is also unfair to other players.

Mahjong players can see who you are when playing, so try not to be rude to others and respect local etiquette.

Playing mahjong can be loud; that's why there is always a carpet on a mahjong desk. Its noises may disturb neighbours and usually be a target of complaints, even an unhappy dispute. Control your noise when playing.