As arranged, a taxi driver picked me up from Peking airport and dropped me off at my hotel in the Dongcheng area, which is situated in the eastern part of the city centre. The driver who was kind and helpful could merely speak a word of English. This was also true for the receptionist of the hotel.

Asking a simple question as 'can I have the key to the room' could unfortunately not be decoded by her. Thinking of a way to make myself clear I remembered the Chinese-English dictionary app I had installed on my phone. Not knowing if this would be of any help, I tried. Oh golly, it worked! Edging my way through the corridor I found my room 203 right next to room 205. Huh, what happened to room 204?

Apparently number 4 is considered an unlucky number. This Chinese superstition can be traced back to the intonation. Number 4 is pronounced as "sì" with a descending tone whereas "sǐ" with a rising tone means death. For this reason phone numbers seldom include a 4, buildings rarely have floors and rooms with this number (which solves the mystery of the missing hotel room), and even companies avoid the 4 totally when bringing a new product to market.

While dragging my bags into the room and throwing myself onto a bed I was wondering if other numbers would have a meaning too. In fact, the numbers 0, 6, 8 and 9 are believed to be lucky numbers as their names sound similar to words that have a positive meaning. For instance, the pronunciation of the word 8 "bā" sounds more or less the same as "fā" meaning prosper or wealth. One guy even payed ¥2.33 million (roughly €307,000) for a telephone number with all the digits to be eight. And did you know that the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics kick started on August 8, at 8:08 pm local time?  

I'm sure there are a lot more of these funny facts, but I fell asleep counting sheep 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8..... Zzzzz