r/Mahjong

I got an exercise bike recently and need an activity to keep my brain busy while I cycle. Are there any good Riichi Mahjong games where I can play against CPU players without a turn timer?

I'm preferably looking for one with good CPU opponents and game analysis for training. Would also be a bonus if I can play it on my android tablet.

Thanks!

In an aging mahjong manufacturing hub, factories are redesigning tiles, expanding exports, and racing to meet a sudden wave of American demand.

...

“We are looking for a factory that can produce acrylic mahjong tiles.”

Hua Fangyi repeated that pitch at nearly 30 factories in Taixing, a city in eastern China’s Jiangsu province known for manufacturing mahjong tiles. “Almost every factory refused,” she says.

After quitting her job to start an export business last October, Hua, 28, spotted a surge in overseas demand for American mahjong. Believing the opportunity might last only a few months, she planned to test the market with just a few dozen sets.

... Taixing’s factories were built for large runs of traditional Chinese mahjong, not the small batches of brightly colored acrylic tiles overseas buyers wanted. Some produced only conventional melamine sets; others required minimum orders far beyond what Hua could afford.

Then Hua found a factory with 20 American mahjong sets in stock. She bought the entire batch, and it sold out almost immediately.

Within months, she had built a company shipping more than 5,000 sets a month and generating roughly $400,000 in monthly sales. Across Taixing, factories that had once turned away from American mahjong were now chasing the same overseas buyers.

“Almost every factory is now making American mahjong,” Hua says.

The opportunity has also drawn a new generation of entrepreneurs to Taixing: former tech workers, salespeople, and export traders hoping to manufacture the tiles and build brands of their own.

Together, they are all betting on a boom whose limits remain unclear. For now, overseas orders have given Taixing’s mahjong industry fresh momentum, ...

... ...

... ...

The game itself, however, has a long history in the U.S. The governing body for American mahjong, the National Mah Jongg League, was founded in 1937 with 32 members; it now has more than 350,000 members and publishes a new card of official hands and rules each year.

More recently, American brands such as Oh My Mahjong have helped recast mahjong tiles as colorful, premium lifestyle products, while influencers and social clubs have brought the game to younger players seeking in-person connection.

In April 2026, review platform Yelp reported that U.S. searches for mahjong clubs had jumped 4,467% between September 2024 and August 2025, compared with the previous 12 months. Oh My Mahjong’s sets now sell for $350 to $475, with most priced around $400 — versus the roughly 100 yuan ($15) many Chinese sets sell for in China on e-commerce platform Taobao.

... ...

... ...

. A search for “mahjong” on Qichacha, a Chinese corporate database, returns nearly 180 businesses in Taixing, many of them small workshops specializing in a single stage of production.

The cluster grew from a household trade dating to the 1980s, when local families cut and polished tiles by hand from bamboo and ox bone. Over time, production split among specialized workshops handling tile blanks, engraving, polishing, printing, and packaging.

“If one family made money from it, the neighbors would learn too,” says Zhu Ronggen, whose father was among Taixing’s earliest mahjong makers. “One person taught another, and slowly the whole village started making mahjong.”

... ...

... ...

“Chinese mahjong designs have barely changed for decades,” Zhu says. “American mahjong is completely different. A circle tile could be a football or a bunch of grapes. One grape stands for one dot, and nine grapes represent nine dots.”

American sets also include Arabic numerals and joker tiles, while familiar symbols are constantly reworked around seasonal themes and customers’ ideas. Summer collections feature seashells and aquatic plants; Christmas designs use Santa hats and trees.

And while traditional Chinese sets are usually molded from melamine in a narrow range of colors, American buyers prefer acrylic tiles with richer palettes, sometimes built from six or seven colored layers visible along the edge.

...

Chinese players, he says, tend to value weight, legibility, and how the tiles feel in the hand. American buyers, by contrast, want sets distinctive enough to display and expressive enough to reflect their tastes.

...

Inside Zhu’s factory, traditional Chinese mahjong and its American reinvention sit side by side. Dust-covered melamine slabs are stacked near the entrance, while baskets of brightly colored acrylic tiles and export cartons crowd the corridors beyond.

... ...

... ...

“I used to make just 20 sets of American mahjong a year,” he says. “Now, I can turn out 200 sets a day.”

... ...

Unlike traditional Chinese sets, which can be reproduced using fixed molds, each American order requires new adjustments to engraving, printing, and coloring.

... ...

“People buy them the way they buy clothes,” Zhu says. “What’s fashionable this year may be completely different next year.”

To keep up, Zhu has invested another 1 million yuan ($148,000) in laser engravers, UV printers, and other equipment.

... ...

... ...

... ...

This past March, five young entrepreneurs arrived in Taixing to start a mahjong business.

... ...

... the five had experience in sales, technology, and international trade. None had ever made a mahjong tile.

...

operates under the name SenJoy Mahjong. A former Alibaba employee, he saw American mahjong as a chance to sell a higher-value product overseas.

... ...

... ...

... ...

... ...

“For us, building a brand starts with original design,” Li says. “We might become the first company in Taixing — and perhaps one of the first in China — to build a real mahjong brand instead of simply manufacturing for others.”

... ...

Their bestseller uses a coral-reef theme.

... ...

... ...

Today’s buyers, he says, remain a relatively small group with strong spending power. If American mahjong reaches a broader market, more manufacturers will follow, he says, adding: “Price wars are unavoidable.”

... ...

... ...

Hua, one of the first Chinese traders to bet on American mahjong, has watched competitors multiply within months.

... ...

... ...

“The profit margins were much higher in the beginning, but now they have dropped significantly,” she says. “I think this is probably an inevitable stage for any viral product.”

She, too, has started developing designs of her own.

Last month, she began experimenting with AI to create early concepts before working with freelance designers to refine them. Her first ideas included themes inspired by witches, tennis, flowers, and Christmas.

This question is mainly for the players who teach mahjong often, just wanted to get a kinda realistic figure on how many players go from never touched a tile to regular player in a club

I know that there is East Only (Tonnansen) and East to South (Hanchan) i wondered is there a term for a full game? as in Starting with East and having 4 rounds of each wind ending in North? or is there no need due to Honba?

Hi again. This is the third and last part of the market research I asked the mods about earlier.

The first post was about Sanma for beginners, and the second was about the kind of support people might want. This time I want to focus specifically on time and pricing.

The experience I’m working on is meant to let international visitors actually experience Japanese mahjong in person — real tiles, a real local mahjong parlor, and a modern Japanese automatic mahjong table — while learning enough to actually play and enjoy a game.

The price would include the whole experience, not just the table time.

That would mean things like:

• checking the group’s mahjong experience and preferences beforehand
• choosing and arranging a mahjong parlor that fits those preferences, including things like the smoking environment
• pre-visit information so guests know what to expect
• meeting a Guide before entering the parlor
• support in English, or another language the guest is comfortable using when available
• the Guide staying with the group throughout the experience and joining or supporting the table when needed
• teaching from zero for complete beginners
• for experienced or online players, adjusting the guidance to their level — including real-table procedures, automatic-table operation, local rules, etiquette, scoring or strategy when useful
• practice followed by actual Sanma play with support when needed

The goal isn’t just to sit through a mahjong lesson. I want people to actually touch the tiles, use the automatic table, understand enough of the game, and spend a meaningful part of the experience really playing it.

The main format I’m considering is:

5 hours — ¥27,500 per person

This would be the standard experience, with enough time to learn the basics and then spend a substantial amount of time actually playing.

I haven’t locked the exact 5-hour breakdown yet. I’m still deciding how much of the time should go to explanation, practice, actual play and some basic strategy.

I’m also considering a shorter option for travelers with a more limited schedule:

3 hours — ¥18,000 per person

Roughly:

• about 2 hours for explanation and practice
• about 1 hour for actual play

For a complete beginner, one full game may not always finish within the 3 hours, so this would be more of a shorter introduction for people who can’t fit the 5-hour version into their trip.

So I’m curious:

1. Knowing what’s included, how do those prices feel to you?

2. During a trip to Japan, would 5 hours feel too long to spend on one experience? And would 3 hours still feel too long, or does that fit more comfortably into a travel day?

3. For the 5-hour version, how would you want the time divided between learning, practice, actual play and basic strategy?

If your reaction is simply “too expensive,” I’d also be interested in what price would start to feel reasonable.

And if you wouldn’t be interested regardless of price or duration, that’s useful to know too.

This is market research only. No booking or sales links.

Disclosure: I used ChatGPT to help organize and polish the English wording. The project, pricing idea and questions are my own.

Linked is my Twitter post on the math.

And my response: Are you kidding me?

That 10 million copper has been accumulated during the 7 years of Majsoul. My account existed since Day 1 of Majsoul EN.

It’s my moms 1960s set. The old ladies hate to play on it bc it makes them feel old, which seems crazy to me. So she want to clear the house

Hi! My current physical set didn’t come with anything to keep track of the score (sticks, chips, etc.).

At the moment I just use an app in the middle of the table. I don’t get to play in person very often anyway, since it’s pretty hard here in Italy to find three other people who both like and know how to play Riichi Mahjong.

Still, I’d like to buy some tenbou/point sticks to improve the feeling of playing with a physical set. The problem is that the only decent option I’ve found online is a set for around €40 on Amazon.

The money itself isn’t really the problem, it just feels a little overpriced for what is basically a bunch of plastic sticks, especially considering that you can find entire decent-quality Mahjong sets online for around the same price.

Do you think €40 for a set of tenbou is worth it? Do you know any other sellers/sites that ship to Italy or Europe?
Finding decent Riichi accessories here in Europe seems surprisingly difficult, tbh.

The website is hosted at https://riichi.study

Hi everyone, we are a group of friends who play riichi together. We started from 3 players and people brought in their friends, friends of friends, etc. and now we have grown to about 12 players.

I have seen players improve from knowing nothing to being able to play comfortably. We teach new players mainly through rote learning or asking them to try out online clients. This process tends to be quite unstructured and impromptu, and we sometimes missed out on explaining certain stuff. Don't get me wrong, online clients (especially RC) have great tutorial. Unfortunately, they have gone quite gross and I can no longer recommend them.

Eventually, this became repetitive and I started this project to hopefully give our new players a better time learning the game without having to install anything.

The guide right now is a Work In Progress, only enough information for beginners to play a game, not so much about scoring or strategies. My plans for the future include basic strategies (most likely extracted from Riichi Book 1) for beginners who are looking to up their game.

I have just made the website open-source. I appreciate any feedback you have for the website under this Reddit thread or the issues page in the repository.

As the title really, does ron break concealment?