Shan Hai Jing Demo Slot - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

The Shan Hai Jing, or Classic of Mountains and Seas, is an ancient Chinese compilation of mythic geography and beasts. It is believed that variations of this text may have existed as far back as the 4th century BC.

The text was originally seen as fact; however, it was later established to contain detailed descriptions of mythical beasts, locations and stories over 18 sections.

In Vela Gaming’s tribute to this text, we see five reels of fantastical creatures offering some generous payouts. To win at Shan Hai Jing, you simply need to land a combination of three matching symbols on one of the 20 paylines. The wild symbol can help you to achieve winning combinations by substituting for any symbol excluding the scatter. The scatter offers its own cash payouts and triggers the free spins bonus round, which we will look at later.

Theme, graphics & soundtrack

As mentioned above, this slot takes inspiration from the ancient Shan Hai Jing texts that detail all sorts of mythical circumstances and creatures. The soothing yet exciting and enticing classic Chinese music works really well with the theme of the slot.

In the background is a brightly lit temple, while the reels feature the sorts of creatures you might uncover on reading the texts along with the classic ten to ace playing card symbols. These have had a quirky redesign to fit the theme of the slot.

Unusually for an Asian- or Oriental-themed slot, you won’t see much red in this game; instead, the creators have chosen a blue and purple background.

RTP & volatility

Vela Gaming has not announced the volatility or RTP for Shan Hai Jing; however, you can play this and more Vela Gaming slots online for free right here at Slots Temple.

How to play Shan Hai Jing

Before we look at the details of this slot, such as the paytable and bonus features, let’s look at the mechanics of the game:

1. Firstly, look to the left of the reels to find the information, the sound, and the home icons. The ‘i’ will show you the rules, free games and paytable details. The rest of the controls are beneath the reels.

2. Once you are happy with the rules of the game, set your bet by clicking the up and down arrows by the bet option to the right of the controls.

3. Alternatively, click the large max bet button to the left to automatically jump to the highest possible wager.

4. If you want to adjust the number of active paylines for your game, you can use the arrows by the lines option next to the max bet button.

5. When you are ready to start spinning, click on the large green play button in the middle of the screen. You can also select autoplay on the far right to select how many times you would like the game to spin automatically for you.

Bet sizes & paytable

With all 20 paylines active, the bet range for Shan Hai Jing is from 0.2 up to 20.00 credits per spin. If you would like to reduce this, you can lower the active paylines to wager from 0.01 to 1.00 credit.

The symbols all pay out from left to right excluding the scatter, which can pay from any position. The best winning combination will include five of the same symbol, with the possibility of using a wild to substitute. The top prizes are as follows:

- Dragon: 1,000
- Tiger: 500
- Mouse: 250
- Bull: 250
- Chickens: 250
- Ace: 125
- King/queen/jack/ten: 100
- Scatter: 50x your total bet

Bonus features

There are four different types of free spins bonus games in Shan Hai Jing. When you find three or more phoenix scatter symbols, you will receive a cash prize and be given the chance to choose between them as follows:

1. 5 free spins with only 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, wild and scatter appearing.
2. 8 free spins with only 51, ace, king, queen, jack, wild and scatter appearing.
3. 15 free spins with only the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, wild and scatter appearing.
4. A mystery free game with up to 20 free spins and a surprise bundle of symbols appearing from any of the other three sets.

Conclusion

Overall, we enjoyed playing Shan Hai Jing, as the graphics were beautiful and the creatures are really detailed. From the little we learned, the slot is a great introduction to Chinese history and definitely tempted us to learn a little more, although the wins weren’t quite as great as we had hoped.

We always enjoy a slot that offers a variety of free spins games to choose from, although the numbered symbols did confuse us a bit when we first saw them! If you want to see some of the slots that we think have the best slot bonus, you can check out our reviews. If you fancy trying your hand at another generous Chinese-themed slot, why not check out Pragmatic Play’s Caishen's Cash free play slot right here at Slots Temple?

Disclaimer: Shan Hai Jing trademark / license is owned by Vela Gaming. This site is not endorsed by Vela Gaming.