Board Games

象棋 is in the family of Chess games, but it is a different game, yes, like Japan's Shogi. If you have any chess skills they'll translate well to this game, though. There's a Chess Variants page summary available that goes into better detail. In brief, though, the differences include:

1. The "palace" in the centre of each side. The general and his advisors/guards are only permitted to move in that space: the advisors one space along the diagonals only, the general one space orthogonally only.
2. Generals are not allowed to be in uninterrupted line of sight across the board. (A common pinning tactic uses this rule.)
3. The elephant/ministers move diagonally two spaces, can be blocked, and cannot cross the "river" in the middle of the board. (This means they can only inhabit 7 places on the board, yet despite their rigidity knowing how to use them is incredibly important to play.)
4. The horses move like knights in Chess, but unlike knights they can be blocked: they do not jump.
5. The chariots are identical in movement and capture to the rooks of Chess.
6. The cannons are ... the things that will screw you up the most. They're very subtle pieces. They move like chariots, but they capture by jumping a single piece (either side's) to take a single piece on the other side of the jump. They must have precisely one piece between them and the target to capture it.
7. The soldiers (what you called pawns) move forward one space when on their side of the river. Once they cross the river they can move one space forward, or to the left and right. They capture as they move.
8. The game has the same number of pieces as Chess, but the board is larger (90 spaces instead of 64) meaning games tend to be more dynamic and free-flowing than Chess games.

Read the Chess Variants page for more detailed rules. It's actually quite a fun game once you get used to reading the characters on the pieces.