888 is a Lucky Number at the Beijing Olympics

Lucky number at Beijing Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will start at 8 o'clock in the evening on the 8th August, in keeping with 888 as an extremely lucky number (at 8 on the 8th of the 8th month).

888 has a similar pronounciation in Cantonese as the word for to make money.
Although the Olympic Games had been planned to start in late August because of Beijing's high summer temperatures, Beijing's mayor decided that the event would begin on the luckiest date possible - on 8/8/08.

6, 8and 9 are considered lucky numbers in Chinese, while 4, 7 and 1 are considered less so.

Telephone numbers, vehicle licence plates and addresses which contain these numbers (particularly 888) are very popular and often cost more.

4 in Chinese sounds like the word for death, which is why it is so unpopular. 7 can be translated as "gone" which also has negative connotations, and 1 can mean lonely, for obvious reasons.