In America, the number “13” is notorious for being superstitiously unlucky. In the Chinese culture, some people consider the number “4” unlucky, because in Chinese and some dialects, such as Taiwanese, the number “4” has the same pronunciation as that of the character for “death”, and because of this, many Asian cultures associate this number with death. For many years people regard it as the inauspicious numeral and avoid it deliberately.
One of the most common avoidance tactics includes the skipping of numeral “4”. For instance, you might not see a 4th floor in an elevator, or you might not see a hospital room that ends with “4”. And in some areas in China and Taiwan, license plate numbers have skipped the “4” all together. Here in the Bay Area, when it comes time for buyers to purchase a home, you might want to observe that Asian homebuyers may choose a property over another because it has “4” in its address.
But, there are many who hold a different view, or say that they do not mind it at all. They see “4” as just another number.
One of my partners has even had some of his Chinese investors ask if they could change the address with the city because of the association with the number [4]. Just for the record, it is sometimes possible to slightly modify your address to avoid certain unwanted numbers in San Mateo County.
