Check out my elevator.
It looks like pretty much any elevator.
Notice a lack of “4” on the elevator. And 13.
It has two doors.
It goes up and down.
However, it seems to miss a lot of floors.
Actually, it doesn’t miss any floors.
It misses a lot of FOURS.
That is because four is an unlucky number in Chinese mythology.
A perfect example of this is when I bought my cell phone number.
I was supposed to pay 40RMB for it (about 6 USD).
I was able to choose from around 50 numbers.
The number I choose happened to have a lot of fours in it and that made it easy to remember.
And yet, there is a 4 on the LED screen.
When I picked it, the rep told me that I would get it free because of the fours in it and most Chinese people won’t buy it.
In fact, it would have cost a lot more if my number had an “8” in it as that is supposedly a very lucky number here.
The rep then told me that I’d get a 10RMB discount, each month, for that number as an incentive.
I was going to take it anyway but because it had fours in it, I got it free and got a discount.
So, check out the pictures of my elevator.
Yep, no “4” anywhere.
Instead, they changed the name to 3A, 12A, 12B, and 23A.
If you notice, there is a 12A and 12B.
That is because the Western superstition of the number “13” has now been imported to China.
The further you travel, the smaller the world becomes.