Elevator Numerology

In the US it is not unusual to see a floor 13 missing from a high-rise building. In China it is not unusual to see floor number 4 or 14 missing. At our office in Beijing we are on the 20th floor of what is really a 17-floor building. We are missing Floors 4, 13, and 14 (I guess they want to accommodate both western and eastern idiosyncrasies with numbers).

Here is a little explanation on Chinese number 4 and 14:
The number 4 is seen as bad luck especially in dialects where its pronunciation is homonymic to the word "death" (死). In fact, many apartments in China do not have a 4th floor due to the substantially lower property values.

Number 14 is considered to be one of the unluckiest numbers in Chinese culture. Although 14 is usually said as "shi si," which sounds like "ten die", it can also be said as "yi si" or "yao si", literally "one four". Thus, 14 can also be said as "yao si," literally "one four," but it also means "want to die".