Why Do Hotels in East Asia Skip the Number Four?

Tim Ferriss says hotels and other buildings in East Asia often skip floor numbers that contain a four, because four is the unlucky flip side of eight. In Mandarin, four is si, on a fourth tone, and the word for to die is si, on a third tone. Same consonant, same vowel, different tone.

Some buildings in the United States omit floor 13. The East Asian version leaves out fours, and the same omission shows up in places like Vietnam. The floor can still exist. The digit people do not want on the button is what disappears.

The tones are close enough to wreck a beginner class. He remembers a 1996 Chinese class that started with something like 32 students and was down to about 12 or 14 within two weeks. Making the sounds takes physical practice, more like weight training than memorizing a list. Skipped floor numbers are the everyday result of that near-match between four and death.