Symbolism, homophones and lucky numbers

I recently worked with a foreign architect whose concept design was not well received by his Chinese clients. Some of the symbols he used in the design do not work in the Chinese culture. The architect told his Chinese clients that the base of the building symbolized “coal”, not knowing that the word “coal” has bad associations in the Chinese culture. There are some homophones in Chinese as well. Coal sounds the same as mildew and no (have-not). The bad associations with coal are self-explanatory. The architect had to give up the coal symbolism.

The architect is not well-versed with the Chinese language. How could he possibly know better? Luckily, it was just a concept design, which could be changed easily.

If you're a westerner having to deal with Chinese persons, it’d be helpful to know something about the lucky numbers in the Chinese culture.

The number 8 is associated with fortune. It’s not uncommon for people to want to have as many 8’s in their phone number as possible, because “eight” sounds similar to “coming into a big fortune/getting rich”

The number 9 is associated with longevity and long-lasting relationships.

Of course, not all numbers are considered auspicious in the Chinese culture.
The number 4 sounds similar to “death”. In some elevators, the fourth floor is named the 3A floor, and the 14th floor is named the 13A floor, due to the bad association of the number 4.

Some combinations of numbers are interesting and romantic.
520 sounds like “I love you.” in Chinese
5201314 sounds like “I love you all my life.”
530 sounds like “I miss you.” in Chinese.

I heard there’s a bar named “520”, which simply means “I LOVE YOU!”I am starting to think that we Chinese are romantic, too!