Mahjong tiles explained

The dots suit, called 筒 (tǒng) in Chinese and also known as circles or coins, runs from 1 to 9. The number of circles is the tile's value, so the 6 of dots shows six circles.

A set has four of each, 36 dot tiles in all. The 1 of dots is usually drawn as one large, decorated circle.

The bamboo suit, 條 (tiáo) or 索 (suǒ), is drawn as sticks of bamboo, and the number of sticks is the value. Like dots, it runs from 1 to 9 with four of each tile.

The 1 of bamboo is the odd one out: instead of a single stick it shows a bird, often a sparrow or a peacock. It is still simply the 1 of bamboo.

Each character tile shows a Chinese numeral above the red character 萬 (wàn), which means ten thousand. Players who don't read Chinese often call this suit cracks.

The corner numbers on our tiles help while you learn the numerals, which are listed below.

The four winds are East 東 (dōng), South 南 (nán), West 西 (xī) and North 北 (běi). There are four of each, 16 wind tiles in all. In four-player mahjong the winds mark the seats around the table.

The red dragon 中 (zhōng) means centre, the green dragon 發 (fā) means fortune, and the white dragon 白 (bái) is usually an empty tile or a blue frame, as it is here. There are four of each.

The flowers are plum 梅 (méi), orchid 蘭 (lán), chrysanthemum 菊 (jú) and bamboo 竹 (zhú). Each appears once. In mahjong solitaire any two flowers match each other.

The seasons are spring 春 (chūn), summer 夏 (xià), autumn 秋 (qiū) and winter 冬 (dōng). Each appears once, and any two seasons match each other.