Chinese checkers finishers. The rules are simple, so even young children can play. Despite its name, the game is not a variation of checkers, nor did it originate in China or any part of Asia (whereas the game 象棋 "xiangqi", or "Chinese chess", is from China). The game was invented in Germany in 1892 under the name "Stern-Halma" as a variation of the older American game Halma. The "Stern" (German for "star") refers to the board's star shape (in contrast to the square board used in Halma). The name "Chinese Checkers" originated in the United States as a marketing scheme by Bill
Ethnic Chinese in Mongolia those restrictions, Chinese trade firms continually penetrated the country, concentrating mainly in Ikh Khüree, Uliastai, Khovd and Kyakhta. Their trade practices and the lifestyle of the Mongolian nobility lead to an ever-increasing indebtedness of the banners, nobles, and ordinary people, and Chinese businesses became a target of public discontent as early as Chingünjav's uprising in 1756. The spill-over from the Dungan rebellions of the 1870s into Mongolia also saw a number of Chinese businesses in Khovd and Uliastai destroyed. Many of the Chinese merchants lived in Mongolia only seasonally or until they had made enough money to return to China.