Well, my travels around China are at an end. Tomorrow I'm flying back home. On the last day here, I made another visit to the Tiandi Jian go club. This time, I have some pictures to share.

I've put the pictures on imgur.com, and each picture also has a caption under it, with some explanation of what you're seeing. More explanation (and my story) below.

The pictures can be found at http://herminator.imgur.com/tiandi_jian_go_club

As already posted by cdybeijing, Tiandi Jian recently moved (but only about 100 meters). They've also changed their prices, but more on that later. The new location is very nice, and easier to find too, due to the great big sign on the outside. On the sign, Tiandi Jian go club is also written in English, so even those without any skills in Chinese should be able to find it

Also on the sign is the name of the equipment shop they run, called Ben Shou Qi Dao, which translates literally as "Proper Move Game Way", and I guess means something like "Proper style", "Proper strategy", "The proper way to play". Ben Shou is equivalent to the Japanese term Honte. Anyway, they have all sorts of excellent equipment. Beautiful boards and bowls, slate and shell stones, and a large collection of books. And of course a lot of back issues of Weiqi Tiandi. They have a website at: http://www.benshou.com/

When you enter the building, the shop is on your right, using what window space they have. The playing area is behind it. This area is divided into three main sections. Where you enter is the main playing room, with the staffed front desk, kettles to refill your cup of tea, etc. Here, about 20 boards are set up.

Off to the left of this room is a playing room in the Japanese style, with tatami mats and floor boards. It is decorated with (amongst other things) several pictures of Fujisawa Shuko, who visited China often to teach, and is clearly still admired here.

To the right of that, also on the left side of the main room, is a room for official matches, with a single table for the players, and a table to the side of that for the game recorder and referee.

All the way in the back, a hallway leads off to the toilets and staff rooms.

We (my girlfriend Gineke and I) entered around 1:30 in the afternoon, and there were perhaps a dozen players present. We first looked around the shop a bit, then we asked if I could play. No problem, of course. An opponent was found for me, a Chinese 3 dan who spoke reasonable English. When he heard I was from Holland, he told me he had visited there twice this year, on business. From that, and also from the pricing, I gather that Tiandi Jian is probably mostly a club for the richer part of the Chinese playing population.

The pricing used to be 40 Yuan flat fee, but they've changed that at the new venue to an hourly fee. On weekdays, you pay Y10 (about €1 or $1.50) entree fee, then pay Y5 per hour (rounded to the nearest half hour). On weekends prices double, so I payed Y20 entree fee plus Y10 per hour. The entree fee includes a cup of green tea, which you can refill from kettles. They've got discounts from 200 hours onwards, and also membership options (one month, six months, one year and two years), but I guess most of the readers here are unlikely to be interested in that

In total, I spent almost 5 hours there, playing 4 games. Against the 3 dan, I tied with 1 win each. Against two other players, both 4 dan, I also won one game and lost one game. In the end I paid 65 yuan. My girlfriend also paid Y20 (entree fee only, as she didn't play).

All in all, I think Tiandi Jian is well worth a visit for any player traveling through Beijing.

Thanks very much for the story and photos. I visited the Beijing Tiandi Jian go club in 2006 and 2007, before their recent move. Do they still allow smoking there?The written term is the same in both languages: 本手.

Yep, people can and do smoke in there.

Once again, great review Herman. I've loved your series of posts about go in Beijing and more generally China.

The new venue is indeed a very nice environment. It's not very clear from the pictures, but the playing hall is a fair bit larger than the previous home of the club. Unfortunately there are no windows except for at the entrance where the equipment shop sits, but the lighting is fairly good.

The dozen or so people that you ran into on Sunday afternoon most certainly reflects a decrease in players from the previous venue. Although most of the regulars are successful individuals and often work for foreign companies, the price is definitely an issue for everyone. The effect of the new pricing system seems to be psychological: whereas before, 40 RMB all you can play was relatively easy to digest (although my Chinese friends, wealthier than I, still complained about that cost from time to time) now there is that slight tendency to think before playing each new game, as you consider that it will tack another hour or two onto your fee. Before, it was very common for people to just stay all day, even ordering delivery for lunch and dinner directly to the club.

As a 1-2 kyu player, I used to very much enjoy going to the club, playing maybe 1 or 2 games but chatting and watching for an entire afternoon, often benefiting from the reviews of games. I tried this last month, on a day when I played only one brief game, and it ended up costing me 60 kuai. It seems slightly wasteful and has turned spending an afternoon at Tiandi Jian into a once in awhile rather than a regular activity for me.

Of course property values in Beijing seem to be climbing a never-ending staircase and I understand the necessity of such price increases. The fact remains that the cost of playing at Tiandi Jian is discouraging for most locals.

The smoking, of course, is inevitable. You won't find any place in China that accommodates non-smokers, though go salons tend to be worse than the average restaurant.

By the way, in Herman's picture "Main Playing Room", in the back corner of the room and immediately next to the display board, you can see Fang Tianfeng, 8p, teaching one of his many young students. He is a regular presence at the club always training students from about 10 - 14 years old.

Paying by the hour seems odd, especially because, as cdybeijing points out, it dissuades people from hanging out and watching. It's a beautiful looking place, though.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Yes, that is a definite disadvantage. When we arrived, my girlfriend stayed and looked around, talked with my opponent for a bit, drank a cup of tea, then went shopping. At the end of the afternoon, she came back and watched some more until my last game was finished. When we left, they wanted to charge her 40 Yuan. The Y20 for entry fee was no more than reasonable, IMO, given that she drank the tea included in that price, but the Y20 for "two hours being inside" was a bit of a let down. When we mentioned that, the staff spoke to the manager and waived the 20 yuan though. I guess if you bring a non go-playing friend, who is just going to read a book or some such, it would be wise to inquire in advance if it is possible for them to pay only the entry fee if they're not playing or watching.

Guess you won't be dropping by HK.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Nope, sorry.

Going by HK would've required multiple entry visa, so we decided to play it safe for our first trip to China.

Ooooh, the urge to travel east has been reignited. Thanks for the review and pictures.

Looks like a lovely place to spend a day. I'm curious, what sort of hours does the club keep, didn't see this mentioned anywhere though I may of missed it.

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Where've you been? Zatoichi could slice the board in half, put it back together again and rearrange the position so fast that no-one even knew he'd drawn his sword - and he was blind. ~ John Fairbairn

Are you planning to visit the club, or do you live in Beijing? I don't know the exact hours of the club, but to my knowledge they are open from around noon - 10 pm through the week and all day on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, I was rather bored during the flights back (a total if 15 hours in the air, plus several more waiting at airports), so I decided to record three of the games I played that afternoon (the fourth was blitz, and I don't remember it too well).

The games are attached, and the first is also embedded, because that one was reviewed for us by a stronger player, who was introduced as "not a professional, but a teacher", with no rank mentioned (but probably pretty strong). There are comments up to move 76, at which point I have also given a bonus question for you to ponder

[sgf-full]http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/download/file.php?id=615[/sgf-full]

Also, from the third game, another reading question:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bm81 Moves 81-90
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O X . X X . O . X . . X . O . . . |
$$ | . . O , X O . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . O O O . O . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . X X O . O . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . O O X . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X X . O X . . X . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X O X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | X O O O O X . . . , . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . O X O O a . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . O 6 O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . O X . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . X X . O . . . . . . . . . . X X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . X O . . . . . . X O . . |
$$ | . . . X . X 7 X O , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . . . . X O O 1 2 . . . O . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 9 8 3 4 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Question: Can black cut now starting with a move at a?

Regarding the question in Game #1,

@hiyayang:


EDIT, @hiyayang #2:

No not likely (not in the near future anyway). I'm always curious about what kind of hours clubs keep, and had increased interest here because of the economical points raised in the thread.



Thanks for the commented game HermanHiddema. Don't know if you do already, but with adventures like this you'd make a fine blogger.

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Where've you been? Zatoichi could slice the board in half, put it back together again and rearrange the position so fast that no-one even knew he'd drawn his sword - and he was blind. ~ John Fairbairn

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'll be going to Beijing in about 7 hours and staying there for 2 months. Turns out this Go club is pretty close to where I'll be, so if any L19ers here who live in Beijing want to meet up let me know .