Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
think of as the worst possible number, 666, the Chinese believe to be extremely
lucky.
8
(
八,
b
ā
): This is the luckiest of all numbers in Chinese, and the more of them
the better. This number carries the meaning of “prosperity” or “fortune.” It's the reas-
on Beijing held its opening ceremony for the Olympic Games at 8pm on 8/8/2008.
Any date with this number is also extremely popular for weddings.
9
(
九,
ji
ǔ
): The number nine means longevity and eternality. So again, the more
nines you have, the longer you'll live. It's the reason why the Forbidden City is said
to have 9,999 rooms and why the romantically inclined send 99 roses to each other.
4
(
四,
sì
): This is the unluckiest of numbers as the pronunciation is similar to that
of the word for death (
死,
s
ǐ
). Any number containing it, including 14, 24, and so on,
is tarnished. It's highly likely, therefore, that if you live on the 30th floor of a build-
ing there will be a few floors missing. Any phone number with fours in it should be
cheap, if not free.
Calls to the United States are about RMB8 per minute on top of the local call rate, which
works out to be RMB81.43 for a 10-minute call to the United States. Halve that if you've
added in an IP code. IP cards can also be bought from phone stores, but these are no cheap-
er than using the IP service directly through your provider.
As for telephones, these can easily be bought at Walmart and Carrefour, Buynow,
Amazon, 360Buy, and so on.
All three carriers provide mobile phone coverage. China Mobile is the largest by client
numbers and uses a GSM system. The company launched its GSM 3G network (which is
based on its own TD-SCDMA standard) in only 2010, and its share of the 3G market re-
mains small. It has, however, been developing a 4G network, so this is something to keep
your eye on. For now, the other two carriers dominate when it comes to 3G market. Ch-
ina Telecom uses CDMA2000, the same standard that is used widely throughout South-
east Asia and by many U.S. carriers, including Sprint and Verizon Wireless. China Unicom,
on the other hand, uses W-CDMA (UMTS), the dominant 3G network throughout Europe,
Australia, New Zealand, and much of Asia. It's also the network of choice for AT&T and
T-Mobile in the United States.
