Board Games, Cards and Street Games · 31 entries · 5 regions
Chinese chess on a stone table with a crowd around it, card games that change name every province, and the lane games that come back out at New Year.
31 of these, grouped by region. The first line of each entry says whether you can take part or only watch; the last column gives the hours, the cost where there is one, and how much Chinese it takes. Or see all seven kinds.
2 entries
North China (华北)
| What | Where | When and what it takes |
|---|---|---|
| WatchingBeijing Park Board & Card Games (北京公园棋牌)Tiantan, Zizhuyuan and Taoranting all have their regular boards. The rule about watching in silence is quoted often and kept rarely. | Beijing | All year, 9 to 11:30am and 2 to 5pm Free in the park, 5 to 15 yuan an hour in a card room Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingTianjin Park Board & Card Games (天津公园棋牌)Shuishang, Renmin and Beining parks, where Tianjin’s reputation for talk gets its daily workout around the Chinese chess boards. | Tianjin | All year, morning and afternoon Free Some Chinese helps |
3 entries
Northeast China (东北)
| What | Where | When and what it takes |
|---|---|---|
| WatchingPark Board & Card Games (公园棋牌（象棋/麻将/扑克）)Retired men set boards out under the pavilions and the trees, Chinese chess mostly, with cards alongside. The crowd around a good game is half the point, and in the northeast it does not stay quiet. | Heilongjiang | All year, 9 to 11am and 2 to 5pm; busiest in summer Free in the park, 5 to 15 yuan an hour in a card room Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingPark Board & Card Games (Changchun/Jilin) (公园棋牌（长春/吉林市）)The same scene in Changchun and Jilin city: People’s Square, Nanhu park, Beishan and the riverside. Onlookers get louder than the players, which is the entertainment. | Jilin | All year, morning and afternoon, busiest in summer Free Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingLiaoning Park Board Games & Choir (辽宁公园棋牌与合唱)Boards, card tables and choirs share the parks in Shenyang, Dalian and Anshan, with the singing carrying across from the next clearing. | Liaoning | All year, morning and afternoon Free Some Chinese helps |
13 entries
East China (华东)
| What | Where | When and what it takes |
|---|---|---|
| You can join inAnhui Local Mahjong (安徽地方麻将)Each Anhui city plays its own mahjong: Huainan allows some melds and not others, Ma’anshan makes you drop a suit, Anqing has its own again. | Anhui | Afternoon into the evening, busiest at weekends 10 to 30 yuan a table with tea Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingChess & Cards Corner in Xinghua Park (杏花公园林下棋牌角)The tree-shaded corner of Xinghua park in Hefei, where the boards and card tables are. Bring your own set if you want to play. | Anhui | 9 to 11:30am and 2 to 5pm on dry days Free Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inGuandan / “Throw Eggs” Poker (掼蛋)Guandan has crossed into Anhui and is played the same way, four in pairs, usually in a card room with tea included. You need someone to make up the table. | Anhui | Weekend afternoons and after meals, all year 30 to 80 yuan a head in a private room Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inMinnan Teahouse Chess & Cards Social (闽南茶馆棋牌社交)In southern Fujian the card game happens in a teahouse room with the tea running: dou dizhu and thirteen cards mostly. You need a group and some Chinese. | Fujian | Afternoon into the evening, busiest at weekends 30 to 80 yuan a head Needs the local dialect |
| You can join inGuandan (掼蛋)Guandan came out of Huai’an and has become the thing Jiangsu does before dinner: two decks, four players in pairs, and a bomb thrown down hard enough to make the name. The rules can be shown rather than explained. | Jiangsu | Before meals, around 11 to noon and 5 to 6; all day at weekends Tea 20 to 50 yuan a head No Chinese needed |
| You can join inMahjong in Jiangsu (麻将)Every part of Jiangsu plays a slightly different mahjong, Nanjing and Suzhou each with their own wildcards. Usually you need someone to bring you in. The social game only. | Jiangsu | Mostly 1 to 5pm, evenings too, all day at weekends 10 to 30 yuan an hour with tea Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingShandong Park Board Games & Choir (山东公园棋牌/合唱)Jinan’s parks run boards, cards and choirs together, at a volume the province is known for. | Shandong | All year, morning and afternoon Free Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inWeifang Kite (潍坊风筝)Weifang has made kites for a very long time and holds the national heritage listing for them. In spring the squares and the hill outside town fill with them, and workshops will teach you to build one. | Shandong | Spring, March to May; the kite festival runs from 20 April Free to fly; kites 10 to 100 yuan No Chinese needed |
| You can join inShanghai Alley “Nine Games” Jiuzi Youxi (上海弄堂九子游戏)Nine old lane games brought back out: marbles, hoop rolling, shuttlecock, jacks, hopscotch, diabolo, card flipping, tile throwing and elastic skipping. | Shanghai | The Yuyuan Road games meeting runs yearly, and neighbourhoods hold them at New Year Free No Chinese needed |
| You can join inShanghai Alley Mahjong (上海弄堂麻将)Mahjong in the lane mouths and front rooms is one of the ways Shanghai keeps its neighbourhoods talking. Shanghai rules have their own wildcards. Usually you need to be brought in. | Shanghai | Mostly 1 to 5pm, evenings too, all day at weekends 10 to 25 yuan an hour with tea Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inShanghai Uncle’s Kanglo Ball (上海爷叔康乐球)Carrom, played by flicking discs with a finger, has been a Shanghai lane game for generations. Ronnie O’Sullivan played a few frames with the uncles at Siming Village in 2024 and got coached through it. | Shanghai | Afternoon into early evening, tables out in the lane in good weather Free No Chinese needed |
| You can join inShanghai Uncles Chess & Cards (上海爷叔下棋/打牌)Chinese chess mostly, with go and the Western game around as well, played in the green corners and lane mouths. The club on Yanping Road is the fixed address. No language needed. | Shanghai | 1 to 5pm, outdoors in good weather Free No Chinese needed |
| You can join inHangzhou Park Card Games (杭州公园打牌)Hangzhou’s lakeside parks fill up with card players after lunch, a few hundred of them under the trees at Liu Park alone. Watching is free; joining means asking, and a table needs four. | Zhejiang | After midday until 5pm, busier at weekends Free Some Chinese helps |
10 entries
Central China (华中)
| What | Where | When and what it takes |
|---|---|---|
| You can join inChinese Chess (中国象棋)The river between the two sides of a Chinese chess board is named after a real one in Henan, which makes the province a reasonable place to learn the game. Wait for the current game to finish before asking to play. | Henan | All day, heaviest after lunch; late into summer evenings Free No Chinese needed |
| You can join inHeluo Temple Fair Folk Games (河洛文化庙会民俗游戏)A temple fair in Luoyang that keeps the old games going: diabolo, whip-top contests, two-demons wrestling danced by one person, sedan chairs, a sixteen-arm swing and lantern riddles. | Henan | The first seven days of the lunar new year Ticket plus spending, 50 to 100 yuan Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inMahjong (社区茶馆+麻将)Community teahouses in old Zhengzhou and Luoyang keep mahjong tables at the back. Playing for money is illegal in China; what is described here is the social game. | Henan | 1pm until late, all day at weekends 5 to 50 yuan Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inShuangsheng / Tractor Poker (双升扑克（拖拉机）)Shuangsheng is Henan’s card game: four players in two pairs, two decks, 108 cards. State firms run inter-company tournaments for it, and the provincial asset commission holds an annual cup. | Henan | Afternoon into the evening; all day at weekends Free, bring your own cards Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingHubei Flower Cards “Shangdaren (湖北花牌”上大人”)Long paper cards printed with phrases from an old children’s primer, played in western Hubei and almost nowhere else. Yichang puts it alongside table tennis and Chinese chess at the seniors’ games. | Hubei | Afternoons and evenings, mostly older players Free Needs the local dialect |
| You can join inWuhan Mahjong “Hongzhong Laizipi (武汉麻将”红中赖子皮”)Wuhan’s own mahjong variant turns the last tile of the wall into a wildcard. A table can take a whole afternoon, which is the point. The social game only; gambling is against the law here. | Hubei | Afternoon until late, all day at weekends Table 20 to 50 yuan plus the tea Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingWuhan Park Board Games & Chu Opera (武汉公园棋牌/楚剧)Wuhan parks run to a timetable: taiji and choirs at dawn, Chinese chess and songbirds through the morning, square dancing at dusk, and Chu opera amateurs somewhere in between. | Hubei | All year, early morning and early evening Free Some Chinese helps |
| WatchingXiantao Dingqi (仙桃定七)A card game designed in Xiantao in 2012 and played mostly there, with its own rules for sevens, pots and reversals. | Hubei | Everyday Free online, table games locally Needs the local dialect |
| You can join inChangsha Mahjong “258 (长沙麻将”258”)Changsha mahjong needs a 2, 5 or 8 as the pair, which is where the 258 pricing in the city’s teahouses comes from. | Hunan | Afternoon until late Table and tea, 20 to 50 yuan Some Chinese helps |
| You can join inPao Huzi / Zi Pai Character Cards (跑胡子（字牌）)Eighty-one long paper cards printed with written numerals, played four to a table with one sitting out, quicker to set up than mahjong. Youxian county lists it as local heritage, and jokes that everyone there is a bearer of it. | Hunan | Afternoon until late Tea 5 to 15 yuan, bring your own cards Needs the local dialect |
3 entries
South China (华南)
| What | Where | When and what it takes |
|---|---|---|
| You can join inBig Two Chudadi (锄大地)Big Two takes one deck, four players and about five minutes to learn, which makes it the card game a visitor can actually be dealt into. | Guangdong | After meals and at weekend gatherings Free No Chinese needed |
| You can join inCantonese Mahjong Non-gambling Entertainment (广东麻将（非赌博娱乐）)Cantonese mahjong runs in front rooms and community card rooms, and the rules are local enough that Cantonese helps. The social game only; gambling is illegal. | Guangdong | Afternoon into the evening; heaviest over the lunar new year 10 to 30 yuan an hour with tea Needs the local dialect |
| You can join inLianhua Mountain Kite Flying & Light Show (深圳莲花山放风筝与市民中心灯光秀)Eighty thousand square metres of open hill in central Shenzhen, flown with kites all weekend, and the civic centre light show below it after dark. | Guangdong | Weekend daytime for kites; the light show at 7, 8 and 9pm Free; kites sold nearby No Chinese needed |
Being There on the Right Evening
Most of this costs nothing and needs no booking. What it needs is being in the right district at half past six rather than in a restaurant across town. Tell our local team which city and which week, and they will say what is on and where people actually go.