Activities & Days Out / 18 April, 2022 / Nanny Anita

How to Play Pong Hau K’i a Traditional Chinese Game

Pong Hau K’i is a traditional Chinese (although it is known by other names in different countries) board game for 2 people.  I first saw this game on the blog what do we do all day and thought how good it would be to add to our repertoire of busy bag games. 

Make sure you follow my homemade children’s games board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later. 

To make your own Pong Hau K’i game you will need:

• Pen
• Paper
• 4 counters (2 in each colour)

You don’t need anything fancy for this game, just like noughts and crosses, you can draw up a board any time.  I just happened to make my board onto a piece of felt so that I could re-use it. 

Simply copy the design of the board and set up the counters like in the picture.

How to Play Pong Hau K’i

The whole idea of the game is to block your opponent, so that they can’t move their pieces anymore.

The first player moves one of his pieces into the only available space, i.e. the space in the middle.  Players then take it in turns to move one of their pieces until one player has been blocked.

The gold player is now blocked

It is a very simple game, although it sometimes can take a while to block them.  It was a great game to have in my bag while we were on holiday and kept my charge’s and their cousins occupied while keeping out of the sun. 

If you enjoyed this game of Pong Hau K’i be sure to check out my homemade boggle game, 5 field kono game, and mancala.

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