The Chinese are Superstitious

1/2/05
The Chinese are very suspicious. So much so that my apartment on the “20th floor” is actually on the 17th floor. Why? They skip the 4th floor because the Chinese word for 4 is si (pronounced more like su) which is the same save for the tone to their word for death. Accordingly, they also skip the 14th floor and the 24th floor, etc. They ALSO find the number 13 to be bad luck, so when in the elevator, you will see the buttons 10, 11, 12, 15. Crazy, right? I also found that while purchasing a SIM card for my Chinese phone, different numbers have different prices. The ones with the number 4 in them are much cheaper than the ones with 8 and 6 which are considered to be good luck numbers. My Chinese cell phone number has one 4 in it, and cost me about $25 to buy. No all I can do is pray I won’t accidentally step into an empty elevator shaft or right in the way of an oncoming semi truck with no brakes.