Xiangqi

Xiangqi is Chinese variant of Chess. Western Chess and Xiangqi share common ancestry, but the two lineages forked a long time ago. The game is very popular in China and in Chinese communities all over the world, but is little known in USA and Europe. It's a bit of a shame, because Xiangqi is an exciting and fast version of Chess. Standard home game takes about 20-30 minutes.

The game is played on a 9 x 10 board, with pieces that are placed on the points where the lines cross. Each player has 16 pieces, like in regular Chess. There's a general (like king in Chess), two guards, two elephants (like bishop), two horses (like knights), two chariots (like rooks), two cannons and five soldiers.

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Cannons are the most interesting piece, as it has no equivalent in Western Chess. Cannon moves like a rook, but can only capture opposing pieces by jumping over another piece. The distance doesn't matter, so cannons can strike hard from a long distance. They are a striking piece.

The game has few curiosities. Generals cannot leave their small 3 x 3 palaces and cannot look directly at each other – there must be at least one other piece between them all the time. The guards can't leave the palace either and can actually only inhabit 5 of the 9 points in palace, which means they can be quite dangerous for the general they're supposed to guard. Elephants are like bishops, except they only move exactly two steps at the time and they cannot cross the river in the middle of the board.

As for equipment, Xiangqi is usually played using round wooden discs with Chinese symbols painted on them. One side is red (or white) and the other is black (or green). The two sides have the same pieces, but the symbols are different. The symbols are distinct and fairly easy to learn even if you can't actually read them. Nothing to fear there.

Cheapest sets have thin and flimsy see-through plastic for a board and shoddily painted wooden pieces. Finer sets have actual wooden boards and well-made pieces. The cheapest sets are fine for trying out the game and are pretty good travel and bar sets, but if you're serious about the game, get a decent board, it'll make playing the game more fun.

Wikipedia's Xiangqi page is very good.