Hands moving mah-jong tiles across a table
The table
Four players, local rules, and no allowance made for beginners.
Private Mah-jong and a Countryside Table near Chengdu
An hour outside the city the pace drops again. Sichuan mah-jong is played for small money and large opinions, and learning it properly is the fastest way into a conversation you would not otherwise have.
- Duration
- One day, roughly 09:00 to 18:00
- Party
- Private, or a small group by arrangement
- From
- Enquire for pricing
- Best months
- March to June, September to November
Home-cooked dishes on a table in a farmyard
Lunch, outdoors
A farmhouse kitchen cooking what is in the field this week.
Fine implements laid out on a cloth
The ear cleaning
Alarming to watch, oddly wonderful, entirely optional.
Mah-jong in Sichuan is not the elaborate version played elsewhere. Three suits, no flowers, and a pace that assumes everyone at the table has done this several thousand times.
You will be taught by people for whom it is a daily habit, which means the instruction is brisk and the sympathy limited. This turns out to be the right way to learn it.
Lunch is whatever the kitchen has, cooked in a farmyard, and the afternoon is deliberately shapeless.
A farmhouse courtyard with drying vegetables
Rows of tea bushes on a low slope
A wooden table set under an awning
The day
- Learn Sichuan mah-jong from people who play it daily
- Eat a farmhouse lunch cooked from the surrounding fields
- Walk a countryside settlement that has turned to making and design
- Try the local ear-cleaning ritual, or watch someone braver
- Spend an afternoon at genuinely rural pace
Included
- Private host and interpreter for the full day
- Mah-jong instruction and table
- Farmhouse lunch
- Private vehicle and driver
- Not included: Accommodation
- Not included: Flights and intercity transport
- Not included: Personal spending
Questions
Is mah-jong hard to learn?
The Sichuan version is simpler than most — three suits, no bonus tiles. You will be playing badly within half an hour and enjoying it well before you are any good.
What is ear cleaning, exactly?
A local grooming tradition using fine picks and a feathered tool. It looks alarming and is entirely painless. Plenty of guests decline and lose nothing.
How far out of the city is it?
About an hour each way by road. The countryside pace is the point, so the day is not rushed at either end.
Is this suitable for children?
Yes. Children usually take to mah-jong faster than their parents, which the hosts find funny.
Will there be other guests?
Only if you want them. The day is normally private to your party; we also run it as a small group when travellers ask to share, and we will tell you which applies to your dates.