I love Mah Jong! It is a fun game that requires lots of thinking, so much so that some think it is a good ‘brain’ exercise that helps reducing the chances of Alzheimer!
I enjoy playing this game with my non- Chinese friends too. Our Mah Jong evening usually starts with take-away roast duck(s) from Four Season, Queensway- allegedly the best in London. (Though I have to say it is still no way as amazing as the roast geese from Yue Kee in Hong Kong.) It is a great way for them to learn Chinese!
A recent trip to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China, led me to discover a new game (photo above). Like Mah Jong, this is a game for 4 players. Each player holds a set of tiles. They have to keep drawing and discarding them until they get the winning formation. To my surpise, the tiles are not in Chinese but in English! Each is an English alphabet, just like Scrabble!
The players are elderly whom I normally expect to see in parks playing Mah Jong. It is adorable to see them referring to notes full of English words!
I would love to get a set for my friends in London! I have no idea what it is called though. Anyone has any idea? Is this the tile version of Word Jong?
Winkypedia 
I love scrabble! This is bizarre! As bizarre as a three player chess board that Darren Brown once endorsed lol.
Great find 🙂
http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news18548.html
Been looking for a set for my girlfriend’s parents for ages…….. let me know if you can get hold of them!
Article well-found!!!
I should have used my broken Mandarin to ask the players where they got theirs from! I was too nervous that they might shout at me! :p
I watched them play also-would love to have it in New York! Mah Jong and Scrabble are just about my favorite games.