Chinese pieces - 'mahjong' board

For quite a while, I have had this set of Chinese pieces. It came without a board, and I'd been looking for a board that I felt would fit the pieces. Or make a fitting board myself.

And then I saw this board on eBay and felt it would fit the pieces very well. The 'white' squares remind me a bit of mahjong, which is why I call this a 'mahjong board'.

Putting the pieces on the board; I do feel they look well together!

Bakelite St George set

If you're familiar with xiangqi, you'll know that it is played with flat discs bearing the pieces' Chinese characters, rather than with three-dimensional figurine pieces as is the case for FIDE chess.

And if you're playing xiangqi, you'll probably agree with me it feels strange to be playing the game with three-dimensional figurine pieces. My collection does include two such xiangqi sets: one I bought, having terracotta army type pieces, and one I made myself, basically having Staunton type pieces. 

But what about the opposite? What about a set for FIDE chess having flat discs with symbols as pieces? Such sets definitely exist, and one which is listed on eBay quite regularly is a 'St George' set from the 1930s, with the discs made from bakelite.

The set I got didn't come with a board, but it looks fine on a wooden board with carved edges I had lying around.

The 'white' pieces are brown with some white highlighting, whereas the 'black' pieces are black with red highlighting.

Seeing a FIDE chess set with flat discs feels just as strange as seeing a xiangqi set with three-dimensional pieces ...

Leather xiangqi set

This eBay listing of a leather xiangqi set stood out for several reasons to me. First of all, it came in a nice leather 'tube' closed by a zipper:

Secondly, the board was quite elaborate:

And, thirdly, I really liked the pieces, again made from leather, and basically 'sewn' together, while still being quite substantial:

Really nice addition to the collection!