Four (si, “四”)
It is interesting that the Chinese character for “four” was originally written in 4 horizontal lines, like “one two three”. Only later it was written in this way—“四”. Comparatively speaking, the number “four” is a relatively unpopular number for the Chinese people. For example, the number “four” is often avoided (and replaced by “five”) when indicating the 4th floor in buildings. In China, very few people get married on the 4th day of the month. And when choosing phone number, license plate numbers or some other numbers, the Chinese people try to avoid the number “four”. This is because the pronunciation of “four” (“si”) is similar to that of “die”, only the tones of the two are different. Therefore, people believe that this number will bring bad luck and intentionally avoid it. This is the most typical example of number superstition in China.