LION DANCE lucky number

Many Chinese believe in lucky numbers. They are mostly based on the pronunciation of the number itself, because their homophones have auspicious meanings. Firm favourites among the lucky numbers are the following three digits:

six, pronounced 'liu' in Chinese, implies that everything about you will go easy and smoothly;

eight was originally deemed auspicious by the Cantonese, since in Cantonese, eight reads as 'fa', which means to make a great fortune in the near future; later, the auspiciousness of eight was taken up by all Chinese;

nine, pronounced as 'jiu', implies long in time, everlasting, especially in friendship and marriage.

Besides auspicious numbers there are two well known unlucky numbers

four, which is the number associated with death;

seven, means gone (this is the reason why seven dishes are served after a funeral - therefore, make sure that happy meals do not have seven dishes).

The remaining digits may have, depending on the context, the following meaning:

one: one, sure - depends strongly on context;

two: easy;

three: give birth, life;

five: dual meaning depending on context; it can be either a lucky or unlucky number; it means either I/me or NOT.

The lucky numbers can be anything: lucky money, day of the year, house or apartment numbers. Phone or license plate even serial numbers on money bills. Here are some examples:

168 - a road of prosperity or to be prosperous together; many areas in China, charged telephone service numbers starts with 168 (similar to 900 number in America but has nothing to do with sex), the company who provides the service are definitely getting a road of prosperity when you call them;

289 - easy long-term prosperity, mostly in south east China and Hong Kong;

333 - give birth to many children;

338 - be prosperous in every life or become prosperous after the birth of two children;

518 - I will prosper;

5189 - I will prosper for a long time;

516289 - I will get on a long, smooth prosperous road;

5918 - I will soon prosper.

Sometimes not so attractive numbers can become attractive when they form a phrase: 48 - 4 sounds like 'death', but when placed in front of the prosperous 8 they become together 'determined to prosper'.

On the other hand, the number 88888 (see also this article) means no prosperity whatsoever. Lots of eights apparently means lots of prosperity. For example: 888888. However, 88888 = 5 times 8 = NOT prosperous.
For those who remember: it was used as a special error account number for unauthorised and concealed trade activities made by Barings Bank employee Nick Leesom - the activities via this account when wrong from the start in July 1992 and collapsed in July 18, 1995.
For those who believe in a conspiracy should consider the hint given by the account number and ask themselves: what is the relation between this number and the UK's oldest merchant bank in the Far East? The bank was originally located in Hong Kong and relocated to Singapore. This all happened prior to the handover of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997. Was there something to hide? It is a pity that those old records are likely destroyed after the ING bank acquired the Barings Bank for the princely sum of £1.

So make sure (ask/inquire) what your number means before using it!