Xi'an: Mahjong and Fu Brick Tea in a Courtyard Teahouse

Mahjong is a nineteenth-century game from the lower Yangtze, but it belongs to the teahouse and the teahouse belongs to the afternoon. The rules travel well: 136 tiles, four players, four melds and a pair. What does not travel is the pace, which in a Xi'an courtyard is set by the tea rather than the clock. Your host teaches the simple winning hands first and then lets you play with the tiles face up until the shape of the game is obvious.

The tea is local to the trade that made this city rich. Fu brick tea is a compressed dark tea from Hunan and Shaanxi, fermented until golden spores grow inside the brick, then broken off and boiled rather than steeped. It was the tea carried north and west on the tea-and-horse routes, and it is still drunk here with a pinch of salt or a dried jujube in the pot. Two and a half hours is three pots and four hands, and nobody will hurry you out.

• A courtyard teahouse off a lane in the old city, not a hotel lounge
• Mahjong taught from the tiles up: 136 pieces, four melds and a pair
• Fu brick tea, the compressed dark tea of the tea-and-horse trade, boiled rather than steeped
• The golden spores inside the brick, and why they are the point of the tea
• Three pots and four or five hands in two and a half hours, with no scoreboard that matters
• The host's own family set, which is older than everyone at the table
• Add a bowl of noodles afterwards if the game runs long

• Meals as listed in the daily itinerary (tea and sweet snacks at the teahouse)
• Private air-conditioned vehicle with professional driver throughout
• English-speaking local guide (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian or Japanese on request)
• All entrance fees for the sites listed, including shuttle buses, eco-buses and cable cars where the site requires them
• Local handling and coordination service throughout the programme
• Bottled water (2 bottles per person per day) and audio headsets where group size requires them
• Travel accident insurance for the duration of the tour

• International air tickets and any domestic flights not listed in the itinerary
• China visa or visa-free entry documentation fees
• Meals not specified in the daily itinerary and all beverages/alcohol
• Tips for guides, drivers and hotel staff (suggested USD 8-12 per person per day)
• Personal expenses: laundry, telephone, minibar, shopping
• Optional activities and any item not listed under Price Includes
• Single-room supplement if a traveller requires a room alone
• A meal afterwards at a nearby noodle shop (paid directly, about CNY 30-60 per person)
• A mahjong set to take home (from CNY 200 in the lane, if you fall for it)

Published: October 2026 — prices and itinerary reviewed on this date; later updates are shown in the revision note below.

Please read the notes below before you book. The teahouse is a courtyard house with a step at the entrance; the room is heated in winter and shaded in summer.

Q: Do we need four players?
A: Four is the classic table and the game is designed for it, but we can run three with a simplified rule set, and two people can play a two-handed variant that teaches the same tile logic. If you are a couple, the usual arrangement is to join the host's own table, which is more fun and costs nothing extra.

Q: How long does it take to learn?
A: About forty minutes to play legally, and two hours to play with any judgment. The rules that matter are simple: you are collecting sets of three and a run of three, plus one pair. The strategy is in what you discard and what you read from the other players' discards, and that takes longer than one afternoon.

Q: What exactly is fu brick tea, and will I like it?
A: It is a compressed dark tea, fermented and aged until a golden mould grows inside the brick - the same process that gives Pu-erh its depth. It is boiled rather than steeped, which makes it smooth, earthy and slightly sweet, with no astringency. It is not bitter and it is not smoky. If you drink coffee, you will probably like it more than green tea.

Q: Is there alcohol or food?
A: No alcohol, and the food is limited to sweet snacks - dried jujubes, peanuts, sesame cakes. This is a teahouse, not a bar. If you want a meal afterwards we walk you to a noodle shop on the same lane and you pay there directly; a bowl of biangbiang noodles runs about CNY 30.

Q: Can children come?
A: Yes, and they usually end up playing better than the adults because they have no theory about it. The tiles are heavy and washable, the tea is optional, and we can set up a puzzle version for children under eight who are not ready for the full rules.

Q: Where is the teahouse?
A: In a courtyard house in the old city, within walking distance of the Bell Tower and the Muslim Quarter. Your guide meets you at the courtyard gate because the lane numbering is unreliable. The table is on the ground floor with a step at the entrance.

Q: Do I need a visa for this?
A: Most visitors do not. China's unilateral visa-free scheme covers 50 countries for stays up to 30 days, and 240-hour visa-free transit covers 57 nationalities through 65 designated ports. Confirm your nationality against the National Immigration Administration list before booking flights, because the scheme is revised from time to time.