CHENGDU - Next month, it will be two years ago that the World Mahjong Championship in Chengdu took place. By now, preparations for the next event, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, are in full swing. To come into the mood, here's a video fragment of 'Mahjong Heaven' in Chengdu.

Probably, there's no second place in the world where there so many people  enjoying mahjong as the Renmin Park (People's Park) in Chengdu. At some places, people almost are pushing each other away to get a set at one of the many mahjong tables that can be hired here.

Especially on their free days, Chinese families come here to play 'Chengdu Mahjong'. This is a very popular variant of Hong Kong Mahjong. Wind and  Dragon tiles are left out of the game. To go out, one must have one voided suit (or a pure hand): in other words, one of the series dots, characters or bamboos cannot be used. There is a dead wall of eight tiles. Usually, the Chinese play for a little stake.

Watch the MahjongNews' video fragment on YouTube