​Starting the Game

The four wind tiles are shuffled (face down) and dealt to the players.  The players then sit according to their wind tile (clockwise) North, West, South and East.  Every player will take turns to be the dealer.

All the tiles, excluding the Joker Tiles and the Plain Tiles, are placed face-down on the table and shuffled (washed) before The Great Wall of China can be built.  The shuffling of the tiles is undertaken by the South Wind and the North Wind only.  This is called 'The Twittering of the Sparrows'.

When the East Wind considers that all the tiles have been thoroughly shuffled, he will call 'POW'.
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Each player will then pick 36 tiles at random to build a wall.
BUILDING THE WALL
Each player builds a wall in front of him/her, by placing 8 tiles face down and side-by-side in a line.

​A further 18 tiles are placed on-top - as a second tier - totalling 36 tiles - e.g: 18 tiles in length and 2 tiles high.

East Wind and West Wind push their walls forward and North Wind and South Wind move their walls up to - and outside the other two walls - to form a neat square.

There should be no gaps in the walls which would 'let the evil spirits in'.

Shuffling the tiles is known 'as the twittering of the sparrows'.  

COUNTERS
If one wishes to score, each player is given a total value of 2,000 points with which to play.  
                                  500s   ...................................   Two
                                  100s   ...................................    Nine
                                    10s  .....................................   Eight
                                      2s  .....................................   Ten
BREAKING THE WALL
East Wind throws the die once more to determine which position breaks the wall.  Counting anti-clockwise from the East Wind, the numbers on the dice will indicate who is the make the break.

                                     Score of 5 or 9   ............................   East Wind
                                     Score of 2, 6 or 10  .........................  South Wind
                                     Score of 3, 7 or 11  .........................  West Wind
                                     Score of 4, 8 or 12   .........................  North Wind

The player who is to break the wall, throws the dice again.  The total of the two throws is counting along the wall in front of him/her, from right to left, and he/she breaks the wall where the count ends.

Example of counts to Break the Wall.
  • East Wind throws a 12   -  indicating North Wind to break the Wall
  • North Wind throws a 10 - giving a total sum of 22 tiles to be counted where North Wind will break the wall
      
North Wind will count along the length of his/her wall for 18 tiles and then onto the fourth pair of tiles along West's Wall, totalling the 22 tiles.

These tiles are then removed and place side by side, or with one tile between each and on-top of tiles on the right, making the tiles 3 high.

At the end of the wall, where the deal began, the final seven pairs of tiles - with the two loose tiles on top (14 in all), are detached slightly from the rest of the wall.  This is known as 'the Kong Box', 'the Dead Wall' or 'the Flower Wall'.  Its function is to provide replacement tiles for Kongs, Flowers and Seasons.  If no-one goes Mah Jong, the hand ends when the last tile before the Kong Box has been played.

The remaining walls are known as 'the Running Walls' and are drawn upon in turn by the players during the game.

  • East Wind starts by drawing a block of four tiles.
  • South Wind followed by North Wind also take a block of four tiles.
  • Drawing continues until each player has 12 tiles (3 blocks of 4).
  • East Wind draws the 1st and 3rd top tiles from the Running Wall, giving himself/herself 14 tiles.
  • The other three players draw one more tile each, in turn, giving themselves a total of 13 tiles each.
        
  • All the tiles remain face-down until each player has completed the draw.
  • All the players may now look at their tiles and sort their hands.
        
  • Flower Tiles are displayed at once, face-up on the player's left.
  • Replacements for these Flower Tiles are taken in turn - East Wind, South Wind, West Wind and North Wind.
TO OPEN THE PLAY
                                 
                                Mah Jong proceeds in an anti-clockwise direction  
                             The standard game permits only one Chow per player

East Wind opens the play by discarding a tile from his 14.  The tile is placed face-upwards in the centre of the square and declared by number and suit - e.g: 2 of Circles, or 3 of Bamboo.

Any player holding two or three tiles identical to this discard, may call Pung or Kong, take up the discarded tile and place it face-up with the two or three from his/her hand, on the table in front of him/her.  He/she then discards - and play continues.

Any player coming between the one who discards and the one who picks up that discard, misses his turn until play reaches him/her again.

If no payer calls Pung or Kong, South Wind will draw a tile from the Running Wall, or may take the discarded tile to call a Chow - a run of three within the same suit.  The discard tile - plus the two in the players hand - must be placed face-upwards in front of him/her.  The player then discards - and the game continues.

The discard tiles should be placed on the table in a random manner.  Each player, in turn, picks a tile from the Running Wall and discards one.  The routine is only interrupted when a player Pungs, Kongs or Chows.

The game continues in this manner until one of the players obtains Mah Jong, or until the Running Wall is exhausted, leaving no more tiles to be drawn.

Once a player reaches the stage where he/she needs only one more tile to complete his/her hand, he/she is said to be 'fishing' or 'calling'.  He/she must declare that he is 'fishing' to serve notice to the other players.  They must plan carefully before making a discard, in order not to give the player 'fishing' Mah Jong.

If no player calls Mah Jong, then the game is known as a 'Wash Out', and the next game will be played as a 'Goulash' game.
A WASH OUT followed by A GOULASH
If the Running Wall is completely exhausted without any player having obtained Mah Jong, the hand is declared a 'wash out'.  No score is counted or settlement made between the players.