The common Chinese-rules set has 136 tiles: three suits — Characters (萬), Bamboo and Circles — each with 9 ranks and 4 copies per rank (108 tiles), plus 7 kinds of honor tiles with 4 copies each (28 tiles). Some regional variants add 8 flower tiles (144 total); this guide covers the standard 136-tile game without flowers.
Characters: a numeral + the red 萬 character
The easiest suit to read: each tile shows a Chinese numeral (一 to 九) above the red character 萬, from 1 to 9. See the red 萬? Read the number above it.
Bamboo: count the green sticks
Bamboo tiles show green bamboo sticks — however many sticks, that's the number. The 1 of Bamboo traditionally shows a bird (the “sparrow”). Just count the sticks.
Circles: count the blue dots
Circles (also called dots or coins) show blue circles — however many dots, that's the number. The 1 of Circles is one big circle; the 9 is a three-by-three grid of nine.
Honors: four winds + three dragons
Seven honor tiles in all: the four winds (東, 南, 西, 北) and three dragons — 中 (Red), 發 (Green) and the blank White. Honors have no numbers; you memorize them by shape. The White Dragon is completely blank — you recognize it by having nothing on it.
Reading tips
Suit first, number second. Color and pattern give the suit: the red 萬 means Characters, green sticks mean Bamboo, blue circles mean Circles, one big character means an honor. Then read or count the number — Characters you read, Bamboo and Circles you count. Seven honor tiles is all the memorization there is, and a few rounds of play will lock them in.
One term worth knowing early: 1s, 9s and honor tiles together are called terminals and honors (幺九牌). They only work as triplets and pairs — they can't flexibly join runs the way 2-8 can (1-2-3 and 7-8-9 are runs, but at the edge there's only one possible combination). This is the basis of the “All Simples” scoring hand.