Pairs solitaires are not as interesting as triplets solitaires and are usually just a game of luck. Culin describes two such games, I learned about two more from Chinese blogger platforms.
The first of those described by Culin is Open the Pagoda. The dominoes are laid out as shown in the photo. If there is a pair between open dominoes, it is removed from the board. As soon as the tile has two free adjacent sides, it can be turned over. If all the tiles have been collected in pairs, the player wins.
The second game is the Turtle. The tiles are laid out as shown in the picture. It is interesting that in Culin’s description, only 24 tiles are depicted in the picture, that is, he was either mistaken with the picture or with the description. Perhaps this game was played with the same set as in Ding Niu, and in addition to civilian pairs, there was a Bull Pair (ie [6:3][6:2]). Culin does not describe how the rest of the dominoes are turned over, but the approach must surely be very similar to Open Pagoda.
Another game is named Two Rows – dominoes are laid out in two rows of sixteen tiles, one above the other. If vertically adjacent tiles form a pair, they are removed, the remaining tiles are squashed into their place. After all pairs have been collected, the top row moves one tile to the left, the leftmost tile from the top row “falls” to the bottom row, and the rightmost tile from the bottom row rises to the top, after which the bottom row moves one tile to the right. This way, the tiles move counter-clockwise. If the player managed to pair all the tiles, he won.
Another solitaire game is Memory. Player puts all the tiles spots down, and turn over any two tiles – if the tiles form a pair, they are taken away, if not, then they are put back in place with spots down. You can even play this game with several people and check who will collect the most pairs – this game trains your memory.
Sources
Open the Pagoda Culin’s description
Turtle game described on Pagat, with slightly different rules
Chinese Dominoes GuPai 