China Shores pokies are Konami’s panda game, built for land-based machines and approved in the ACT in 2010, with an online version since 2014. Action Stacked Symbols put tall blocks of one symbol on every reel, so Yin Yang bonus symbols can land on several lines, each awarding its own free games with wins doubled. The online return is 96.1%. The free demo below is a similar panda pokie.
Online, China Shores runs on five reels and three rows with 30 fixed lines. Land-based machines vary by platform: KP3 games offer 10 to 30 lines and K2V games 20 to 30, either fixed or player-selectable. Online bets are usually listed as 30 cents to $150 a spin, though some listings stop at $75, and ACT machines take 1 or 2 cent credits with a $5 maximum bet. The online return is 96.1%. In the ACT, venues choose from eight settings between 85.19% and 96.10%, and the lowest is only allowed on a linked jackpot. Konami rates the volatility high, while most databases say medium. No hit frequency is published, and Konami gives no maximum win: the top line pays 1,000 times the line bet, and figures such as 4,062x or 300,000 coins on review sites are unexplained.
China Shores Pokies Characteristics
Wins are paid along the 30 lines, mostly from three of a kind up, though one database says the top symbols also pay for two. The panda is the wild: it lands on reels 2 to 5, stands in for everything except the Yin Yang and has no listed pay of its own. Before each spin, Action Stacked Symbols fill a block of adjacent positions on every reel with one randomly chosen symbol, which can be any regular symbol or the Yin Yang but never the panda. That is why the screen so often shows tall columns of one picture, and why several lines can carry Yin Yangs at once.
The Yin Yang is not a true scatter: three, four or five must land on a played line, where they pay a small prize and start the free games. Online there is an autoplay, but no gamble, no bonus buy and no jackpot on the standard game, which Konami lists as non-progressive.
The only values we could source are the five-of-a-kind pays, as multiples of the line bet; no source we found lists the smaller pays.
With 30 lines, the top pay is about 33 times the total bet, or 67 times in the free games. The stacks lift results above that, because one symbol can fill several lines at once. The teapot and lantern are listed together without saying whether they are one symbol or two, and the Yin Yang pays are given in credits by one source and in line bets by another.
Three, four or five Yin Yangs on a played line award 8, 10 or 15 free games. Konami says up to 15 free games are won per active payline, which we read as each Yin Yang line earning its own award, all added together; that fits Konami’s talk of awards running into the hundreds and of more than 300 free games. All wins in the free games are doubled, and all pays are on the maximum lines.
Retriggers pay the same awards. One review caps the total at 101 games, but Konami’s own figure of more than 300 points the other way, and no official source states a cap.
When the free games trigger, the Balance of Fortune offers a choice between playing them and trading them for a random credit prize, with the smallest and largest possible prize shown first. The prize grows with the number of games at stake. During the round, the scale icon above the reels cashes out the remaining games while 20 or more are left, or more than 20 in one source. Published ranges start at 40 credits and top out at 319,500 in one database and 639,000 in another. On land-based machines the option exists only on the KP3 platform.
At 96.1% the online game keeps about 3.9 cents of every dollar bet over the long run. On ACT machines the venue picks the setting: 96.10% keeps the same, 90.19% keeps almost 10 cents and 87.20% almost 13, while 85.19% is only allowed with a linked jackpot. The feature fits Konami’s high volatility rating: three Yin Yangs on one line give 8 free games, while a stack across several lines can give dozens, so sessions swing on a handful of spins.
At 30 cents a spin, the online minimum, each line is worth one cent: five red banners pay $10, or $20 in the free games, and $30 buys 100 spins. At $3 a spin each line is worth 10 cents, the same five banners pay $100 or $200, and $150 lasts 50 spins.
China Shores Lucky Garden is the Australian progressive edition, approved in the ACT with the original in 2010: two random progressive levels on the Podium, a $5 maximum bet and a total return of 90.34% to 91.80% including the jackpot. China Shores Great Stacks moved the game to a portrait screen with twice the reel positions and more Balance of Fortune options. Boosted Great Stacks adds a tall 6×5 grid, two symbols in one on the centre reel, a mystery two-level progressive and super free games with random multipliers.
China Shores Quad Spin plays four games of China Shores at once with four times the free games, and an extended version adds a two-level progressive. Konami reuses the engine in China Mystery, Gypsy Eyes, Legion Warrior and Roman Tribune. The myKONAMI Slots app, launched in 2016 with China Shores named as an upcoming addition, is a free-to-play social app with no real money.
The theme is an Asian coastline built around a cartoon panda, which Konami says was designed with international players in mind, down to how much of its face the logo covers. The reels carry lanterns, teapots, a golden tortoise, a red banner with Chinese characters, Yin Yang symbols and A to 9 cards. Reviewers call the graphics basic and the sound effects familiar. The online game runs in HTML5 on Android, iPhone and iPad with nothing to download.
China Shores is approved for Australian venues. The ACT approved it for Konami Australia Pty Ltd in March 2010 under NI2010-133, together with Lucky Garden, on K2V and Podium cabinets, and listed both again in June 2011 under NI2011-279. We found no venue-level evidence for New South Wales, Queensland or Victoria. Online, Konami supplies only regulated markets, in practice US states and Ontario, with real-money play confirmed from 2023, and its Australian iGaming page names only US operators. None of the offshore casinos accepting Australians that we checked could be confirmed to carry it, so we cannot point to anywhere offering the China Shores slot online for real money; a lobby search showing Konami as the provider is the only check. Konami publishes no official free demo. The myKONAMI Slots app on iOS and Android is free but does not run the real-money maths, and a few review sites offer China Shores free play.
China Shores is a one-idea pokie with a good idea: stacks that can drop Yin Yangs on several lines at once, free games that add up line by line with every win doubled, and a Balance of Fortune for anyone who would rather take the credits. It suits players who like a feature that can run from 8 games to hundreds. It does not suit anyone who wants a published maximum win, a modern look or a jackpot on the standard game. The one thing to check is the setting: 96.1% online, and anywhere from 85.19% to 96.10% in an ACT venue.
96.1% online. Australian machines run a setting chosen by the venue, and the ACT approvals allow 85.19% to 96.10%.
Land three, four or five Yin Yang symbols on a played line for 8, 10 or 15 free games. Awards are per line, so Yin Yangs on several lines add up, and every free-game win is doubled.
Konami publishes no maximum. The top line pay is 1,000 times the line bet, doubled in the free games, and the Balance of Fortune prize tops out at 319,500 or 639,000 credits depending on the source.
A swap of the free games for a random credit prize, offered when the feature triggers, with the minimum and maximum shown first, and again during it while 20 or more games remain.
It has been approved for venues, in the ACT in 2010 and 2011. Online, Konami supplies only regulated markets such as US states and Ontario, and no offshore casino taking Australians could be confirmed to carry it.
No. Great Stacks is a later portrait-screen edition with twice the reel positions and more Balance of Fortune options.
